I?
HISTORY IN CONTEMPORARY LETTERS
ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
HISTORY IN CONTEMPORARY
LETTERS.
THE GIRLHOOD OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH.
" A book of this sort, combining biography
and history, is of more interest to many
readers than fiction of any kind, and is an
important contribution to historical works." —
The Daily Telegraph.
"Apart from its serious value, it is also a
fascinating sketch of some of the elements
which helped, in her girlhood, to mould
Elizabeth's character." — The Spectator.
THE YOUTH OF HENRY VIII.
"Mr. Mumby's new volume shows how
curiously fascinating history becomes when
it is read in the original sources." — The
Atherueum.
"It is vivid, revealing, brilliant, enter-
taining."— The Daily Chronicle.
OTHER VOLUMES IN PREPARATION.
CONSTABLE & CO. LTD. LONDON
ELIZABETH AND
MARY STUART:
THE BEGINNING OF THE FEUD
BY
FRANK ARTHUR MUMBY
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD
1914
PREFACE
MARY STUART'S irresistible claims demand at least
as large a share of my space as that devoted to the
early reign and courtships of her rival on the English
throne. Hence the present volume does not carry
me so far as I had originally planned in the series
in which I hope eventually to illustrate the history of
England by means of contemporary letters. That
I have not succeeded in steering an incontrovertible
course in exploring the labyrinth of letters, written
not only by the Queens themselves but also by those
who helped to shape the destinies of both kingdoms
in their day and generation, will surprise no one who
has ventured to make an independent investigation
of the documents of that embittered period. No other
chapter in the whole history of the United Kingdom
is so difficult to present in the form of an im-
partial contemporary narrative as that which intro-
duces the hapless Queen of Scots, about whose mysti-
fying personality the last word will probably never be
written. If the whole truth about the first phase of
her rivalry with Elizabeth, and the fatal mistake of
her marriage with Darnley, may not be found in the
following chapters, the letters at least reveal the
various views which were taken at the time, and, above
all, recreate the atmosphere of the age as only such
documents can ever succeed in doing. " Letters and
dispatches, like journals entered day by day," as Sir
George Cornewall Lewis wrote in one of his essays,
" have this advantage over memoirs, that they exhibit
faithfully the impressions of the moment, and are
written without knowledge of the ultimate result.
They are, therefore, more trustworthy than any narra-
tive composed after the whole series of events has
ri
PREFACE
been worked out, at a time when the narrator is
tempted to suppress, or has learnt to forget, the
proofs of his own want of foresight." Even where
the letters are based on prejudice, or are obviously
false, they are nevertheless essential to a true
understanding of history, as showing some of the
secret springs of foreign and domestic policy.
Especially is this the case with the diplomatic
intrigues of the early years of Elizabeth's reign, and
the disputed course of events which led to the turning
point in the tragedy of Mary Stuart, where the first
irrevocable step was taken along the Via Dolorosa
which was to end at Fotheringhay. Only when due
allowance is made for these early developments is it
possible to arrive at anything approaching to a true
idea of Mary's character and personality. In the
same epoch-making years also were laid the founda-
tions of the policy which governed the whole of
Elizabeth's reign. It seemed to me, therefore, better
to do something like justice to this critical period than
to crowd any of the later happenings into the present
volume. The closing chapter of Amy Robsart's
melancholy romance falls within its scope, as well as
the first act of the tragedy of Mary Stuart, and the
many intrigues, amorous and political, which began
as soon as Elizabeth ascended the throne. All these
may be traced, step by step, in the correspondence
of those who watched every move with absorbing
interest. For the new light on Mary Stuart and the
Darnley match I am indebted to the late Mr. Andrew
Lang, whose article on the subject in Blackwood's
Magazine for July, 1907, was the first reference to
Randolph's hitherto unpublished letters, now printed
on pp. 349 — 57. Permission to reprint the extract
from the letter to Sir Henry Sidney has been very
kindly granted by Mrs. Andrew Lang and the editor
of Blackwood's ; and I owe it to the courtesy of the
officials of the Department of Manuscripts at the
British Museum that I am able to include the unpub-
lished letter from the Egerton Manuscripts, the search
PREFACE vii
for which proved unexpectedly difficult. As before,
I have to thank the Controller of His Majesty's
Stationery Office for permission to print the letters
from the Calendars of State Papers and the publica-
tions of the Historical Manuscripts Commission.
Messrs. Longmans were also kind enough to allow
me to copy an occasional letter from Froude's History,
as acknowledged in the text on each occasion. My
indebtedness to the works of Professor Pollard, Dr.
Hay Fleming, Mr. R. S. Rait, Father Pollen, Mr.
T. F. Henderson, and other living authorities on the
period dealt with, has I hope been made sufficiently
clear in the course of my work. A full list will
be found on pp. ix — x of the various works and
collections from which most of the letters themselves
have been selected.
The portrait of Lord Darnley with his younger
brother, which belongs to his Majesty, and is preserved
at Holyrood Palace, is now reproduced by permission
of the Lord Chamberlain. The photogravure frontis-
piece of Queen Elizabeth is from a plate generously
lent to me for the purpose by Mr. Werner Laurie, who
used it originally for the life of the Earl of Leicester
by Mrs. Aubrey Richardson, published under the
title of " The Lover of Queen Elizabeth." A word
of thanks is also, due to Mr. Roger Ingpen and
Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. for their ready help with
the portrait of the Earl of Leicester, from a water
colour drawing in the British Museum. The remain-
ing illustrations are from paintings in the National
Portrait Gallery, the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
and other collections.
FRANK A. MUMBY.
KlNGSGATE,
THANET,
CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS AND
OTHER COLLECTIONS FROM WHICH
LETTERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED
Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of
Scots. Vols. I. and II., 1898 — 1900.
Calendar of Spanish State Papers : Elizabeth, Vol. I., 1892.
Calendar of Venetian State Papers, Vol. VII., 1890.
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, of the Reign of Elizabeth,
Vols. I.— VII., 1863—70.
Calendar of the Cecil Manuscripts at Hatfield House, Part I. :
Historical MSS. Commission, 1883.
" Burghley State Papers " : Samuel Haynes, 1740.
" Papiers d'etat relatifs a 1'histoire d'Ecosse " : Teulet (Bannatyne
Club), 3 vols., 1851.
" Hardwicke State Papers," 2 vols., 1778.
Ellis's " Original Letters," Second Series, Vol. II., 1827.
" Zurich Letters " (Parker Society), First Series, 1842 ; Second
Series, 1845.
" Correspondence of Matthew Parker " (Parker Society), 1853.
" Annals of the Reformation," Strype [1721] : Clarendon Press
Edition, 1822.
" Full View of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Elizabeth " :
Forbes, 2 vols., 1740 — i.
Sadler Papers, 3 vols., 1809.
" Illustrations of British History " : Lodge, Second Edition, 3 vols.,
1838.
" History of England " : Froude, Vol. VII., 1864.
" Queen Elizabeth and her Times " : Wright, 2 vols., 1838.
" Lives of the Queens of Scotland" : Strickland, Vol. II., 1850 — 9.
" Lives of the Queens of England " : Strickland, Vol. III., 1840 — 8.
" Letters of Mary Queen of Scots " : Strickland, 3 vols., 1842 — 3.
" Recueil des Lettres de Marie Stuart " : Labanoff, 7 vols., 1844.
" New Light on Mary Queen of Scots " : Andrew Lang, Blackwood's
Magazine, July, 1907.
x STATE PAPERS AND OTHER SOURCES
" Inquiry into the Death of Amy Robsart " : Pettigrew, 1859.
" Report on the Pepys Manuscripts " : Historical MSS. Commission,
1911.
'Cabala," 3rd Edition, 1691.
" Nugae Antiquae " : Harington, Edited by Park, 1804.
" Egerton Manuscripts " : British Museum.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v — vii
CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS AND OTHER COLLECTIONS
FROM WHICH LETTERS HAVE BEEN SELECTED . . ix — x
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv
CHAPTER I
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE "
Elizabeth the Daughter of her Father — England " like a Bone
between two Dogs" — Mary Stuart's Claim to the English
Throne — Prince Eric of Sweden offered to Elizabeth — The
Religious Settlement and the Marriage Problem — Eliza-
beth's Secret Reason for remaining Unmarried — Lord
Robert Dudley first Favourite — Archduke Ferdinand's
Suit — Pickering's Rivalry — Archduke Charles's Suit —
II Schifanoya's Picture of Court Life in England — Knox
and his "First Blast" — Mary Stuart's Secret Treaty with
the Guises — Her dim Recollection of Scotland — Arran's
Claim to the Scottish Throne — His Reception by Elizabeth
— Mary Stuart becomes Queen of France — Her Mother at
Bay in Scotland — Spanish Plot against Elizabeth — Her
Support of Scottish Rebels — Arran's Secret Visit . I — 47
CHAPTER II
PLOTS AND SCANDALS
How Elizabeth Hoodwinked the French Ambassador —
England's Weakness — Quadra and the Austrian Match —
Alleged Plot against Elizabeth and Dudley — Scandalous
Tales — Appeasing the Catholics — Squabbles among Eliza-
beth's Suitors — Dudley Suspected of Designs Against his
Wife's Life — Sir Thomas Chaloner's Warning — The
Scottish Rebellion — Knox on the Beginning of the
Struggle — Siege of Leith — Besiegers Plead for Elizabeth's
Help — Bothwell Captures English Money Intended for the
Rebels — Elizabeth's Denials — Cecil's Despair — The
Deciding Factor — Protest of the Catholic Bishops . 48 — 85
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER III
THE SIEGE OF LEITH
PACE
Elizabeth's Intervention in Scotland — Mary of Guise Recovers
her Capital — A Forged Letter — Elizabeth's Terms — The
" disordered Irishry " — Quadra's Fears — Dudley " Ruining
the Country" — The Treaty of Berwick — How Winter
arrived in the Firth of Forth — French Designs Against
England — Elizabeth's Proclamation — The Tumult of
Amboise — Philip's Need of Money — Glajon's Mission —
His Treachery — The French Ambassador's Protest —
Elizabeth's Angry Retort — The Siege of Leith — Mary of
Guise takes Refuge in Edinburgh Castle — Her Heroism —
Mary Stuart's Grief — The Disastrous Assault upon Leith,
May 7, 1560 — Elizabeth Determined to Wipe out the
Disgrace — Death of the Queen Regent of Scotland —
Treaty of Edinburgh — Mary Stuart and Francis II.
repudiate it 86 — 134
CHAPTER IV
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART
Dudley's Ambitious Designs — Arran's Suit Revived — A Crowd
01 Rivals — The Tragedy of Amy Robsart — Quadra's
Account — Objections to it — Dudley sends Thomas Blount
to Investigate — Inquest and Verdict — Dudley Disgraced
but Restored to Favour — Public Opinion — Throckmorton
Warns Elizabeth — Mary Stuart on her Scottish Subjects —
Why she Refused to Ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh —
Her Claim to the English Arms — Death of Francis II. —
The Griefstricken Queen — Elizabeth's Opportunity —
Throckmorton told to Mind his own Business — Dudley's
Marriage with Elizabeth Seriously Discussed — Philip's
Half-hearted Support — Elizabeth Declines to Receive
the Papal Envoy — A Venetian's Portrait of Elizabeth in
her Prime — His Picture of her England . . . 135 — 182
CHAPTER V
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING
Mary Stuart in the Matrimonial Market — Her Scottish Sub-
jects ready to Restore their Allegiance and Support her
Claim to the English Succession— Mary Granted Freedom
of Worship and Arranges to Return — Lethington's Assur-
ance of Fidelity — Mary still Declines to Ratify the Treaty
— Elizabeth's Warning to the Scottish Estates — She
Declines Mary a Safe Conduct through England — Her
Refusal to Recognise Mary's Claim — Knox Warns Eliza-
beth Against his own Sovereign — Lady Catherine Grey's
Disgrace— Mary Stuart's Return — Final Interviews with
CONTENTS xiii
PAGE
Throckmorton — Farewell to France — Her Reception in
Scotland — Knox Makes her Weep — Rival Queens in the
Marriage Market — A Famous Letter from Knox — Enter
Darnley — Lady Lennox under Arrest — Secret Proposal of
Marriage to Mary — Cecil's Lament — Frank Correspondence
between Mary and Elizabeth — Scandalous Tales of Scottish
Bishops — Ascham's Portrait of Elizabeth . . . 183 — 226
CHAPTER VI
ELIZABETH AND MARY SWORN FRIENDS
Elizabeth Helps the Huguenots and Hopes to Recover Calais
— Plot against the Spanish Ambassador — Betrayed by his
Secretary — Rumours of Elizabeth's Marriage with Dudley
— Failure of Proposed Meeting between Mary and Eliza-
beth— An Exchange of Diamonds — Arthur Pole's Abortive
Plot— The Treaty of Hampton Court— Elizabeth's Letter
to Mary on the Subject — Her Dangerous Illness — Solemn
Protest Regarding Dudley — Mary Stuart's Expedition
against Huntley — Declares Unalterable Friendship for
Elizabeth — Knox Denounces her Amusements — Bothwell
Escapes from Edinburgh and is Arrested in England — The
English Expedition to France — Fall of Rouen — Elizabeth's
Encouragement to Warwick — The Disaster of Dreux —
Princess of Conde's Appeal to Elizabeth — Assassination of
the Duke of Guise — Parliament Petitions Elizabeth to
Settle the Succession Problem — Her Reply — New Laws
and the " Thirty-Nine Articles " . . * . . 227 — 266
CHAPTER VII
LOVE AND WAR
The Chastelard Affair — Lethington's Mission to London —
Discusses the Prospects of Mary Stuart's Marriage with
Don Carlos — Elizabeth Offers the Hand of Lord Robert
Dudley — Philip II. Spoils another Opportunity — Catholic
Support for Mary Stuart in England — Why Elizabeth
Refused to Nominate Mary as her Successor — Huntingdon's
Letter of Loyalty — End of the First Religious War in
France — Elizabeth Refuses to Evacuate Havre — War-
wick's Fight against Hopeless Odds — Don Carlos and
Mary Stuart — Elizabeth's Warning on the Subject — Death
of Bishop Quadra — Closing Scenes at Havre — The Plague
Spreads to England — Lady Catherine Grey and Lord
Hertford Removed for Safety — Lady Catherine's Dis-
illusioned Hopes — Elizabeth's Love of Hunting and Arch-
bishop Parker's Love of Venison .... 267 — 301
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART
PAGE
Elizabeth's new Matrimonial Negotiations — Cecil Philosophizes
— Fears of a French Invasion — Mary and Lord Robert
Dudley — Peace Declared between England and France —
John Hales's Book on the Succession — Reception of the
new Spanish Ambassador — Elizabeth's Anxiety Regarding
Mary Stuart's Marriage — Dudley again seeks Spanish
Support for his Alliance with Elizabeth — Darnley and his
Mother at Court — Her Majesty's Visit to Cambridge —
Coolness Between Elizabeth and Mary — Melville's Mission
to the English Court — Dudley Disclaims Responsibility
for his Proposed Marriage with Mary — Melville's Famous
Interview with Elizabeth — Dudley created Earl of
Leicester — Elizabeth Plays a Trick on Guzman — She
Declares Herself a Catholic at Heart — Young King of
France a Suitor for Elizabeth's Hand — Mary Stuart,
Leicester, and Darnley — Cecil's Despair — The Thames
Frozen Over — Guzman's Opinion of Cecil and Leicester —
Was Mary Willing to Marry Leicester ? — Her Promise to
Randolph — Randolph's Congratulations to Leicester —
His Consternation on Hearing of Darnley's Permission to
enter Scotland — Darnley's Arrival and Reception —
BothwelPs Uninvited Return and Departure — New Light
on the Darnley Match 302 — 358
CHAPTER IX
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE
Darnley's True Character — Mary's Infatuation — Elizabeth
Suspected of Double-dealing in the Matter — She Woos the
Catholic-Spanish Party — Her Ideas Regarding Marriage —
Sends Throckmorton to Edinburgh — Lethington sent by
Mary to London — His Dealings with the Spanish Am-
bassador— Philip Approves of the Darnley Match —
Scotland's Disapproval — Mary and Darnley's Measles —
Creates Him Earl of Ross — Promises Throckmorton not
to Marry for Three Months — Darnley's Arrogance — Mary
Believed to be Bewitched — Riccio's Influence — Protestant
Lords Organise Revolt — Elizabeth Commits Darnley's
Mother to the Tower — Mary Sends a Fresh Ambassador
to London — Good News from Spain — Mary and Darnley
Married— The Turning Point in Mary's Career . . 359—390
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
QUEEN ELIZABETH. After the Hatfield Portrait . Frontispiece
ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER. From a
water-colour drawing in the British Museum by
George Perfect Harding, after an original PAGE
painting Facing 14
FRANCIS II. OF FRANCE. After the portrait by
Frangois Clouet at Hampton Court ... ,,38
JOHN KNOX. After the portrait in the National
Portrait Gallery „ 70
MARY STUART IN WIDOW'S DRESS. After the
portrait by Frangois Clouet in the Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris ... ... „ 160
CATHERINE DE' MEDICI . ' « . . . . „ 228
CHARLES, CARDINAL OF LORRAINE. After the por-
trait in the Bibliotheque des Arts et Metiers . „ 348
LORD DARNLEY, WITH ms YOUNGER BROTHER. After
the painting in His Majesty's collection at
Holyrood Palace „ 378
CHAPTER I
" DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE "
Elizabeth the Daughter of her Father — England "like a Bone
between two Dogs" — Mary Stuart's Claim to the English Throne
— Prince Eric of Sweden offered to Elizabeth — The Religious
Settlement and the Marriage Problem — Elizabeth's Secret
Reason for remaining Unmarried — Lord Robert Dudley first
Favourite — Archduke Ferdinand's Suit — Pickering's Rivalry —
Archduke Charles's Suit — II Schifanoya's picture of 'Court life
in England — Knox and his "First Blast" — Mary Stuart's
Secret Treaty with the Guises-^Her dun Recollection of
Scotland — Arran's Claim to the Scottish Throne — His Recep-
tion by Elizabeth — Mary Stuart becomes Queen of France —
Her Mother at bay in Scotland — Spanish plot against Elizabeth
— Her Secret Support of Scottish Rebels — Arran's Secret Visit.
GRAVE doubts, in more ways than one, have been cast
upon the legitimacy of Queen Elizabeth's birth, but almost
every outstanding trait in her character stamped her as a
true daughter of Henry VIII., eager for power and popu-
larity, insatiable in personal vanity. Like her father,
too, she was English to the finger-tips — not half Spanish
like her predecessor, as she took care to remind her
ambassadors at the Peace Conference which had been inter-
rupted by Mary's death. Just as Henry VIII., nearly half a
century before, had been hailed with enthusiasm by a nation
which had reason to rejoice in the magnificent promise of
his youth, so was Elizabeth's accession greeted by the whole
of Protestant England, as well as by many of the Catholics,
who, putting their country before their religion, were equally
tired of the Spanish yoke. She soon made it clear to Philip II.
that she was as determined as ever her father had been to
E.M.S. B
2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
rule in fact as well as in name : that the destinies of England
were no longer to be shaped under the Spaniard's guidance,
as he had lately shaped them — to his own ambitious ends —
as Consort of Mary I. The new Queen was astute enough, how-
ever, to make this clear to her widowed brother-in-law without
mortally offending him, well knowing that England, as yet,
was not strong enough to stand alone. It was well for Queen
and country that both the rulers of Spain and France had their
hands full at this time with the alarming growth of heresy in
their own dominions, and that the war which had just been
patched up by the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis had left them
with their coffers empty. Otherwise Philip might have
responded to the warnings of his ambassador, the fiery
Feria, that unless he pressed his claims by force of arms if
necessary, England, and all that England meant to him,
would slip through his fingers. Henry II. of France, also,
might have shown his teeth on behalf of his prospective
daughter-in-law, Mary Stuart, through whom, as great-
grand-daughter of Henry VII., he had hopes of adding Eng-
land to what he already regarded as his Scottish Kingdom.
In his eyes — as in those of all good Catholics — Elizabeth
was illegitimate, and he did his best to induce the Pope to
excommunicate her. Failing in this, and not daring to
oppose her accession, with Spain ready in that event to
spring at his throat, he nevertheless, when Mary I. died,
caused his daughter-in-law to be proclaimed in Paris as
Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Thus early was
the quarrel begun between the Queens whose rivalry was
to end only with the tragedy of Fotheringay nearly thirty
years later. Mary's claim persuaded many people at the
time of Elizabeth's accession that England was destined to
fall to the share of France if Spain gave her half a chance.
"To make a hard comparison," as an English agent in
Flanders said at the time, " England may be likened to a
bone thrown between two dogs."1 That also was the
opinion of foreigners who, like Feria, either failed to under-
stand, or wilfully misconstrued the new-found strength of
England's position now that most parties were prepared,
for the time being at least, to accept Elizabeth as Queen.
1 Foreign Calendar, 1559 — 60, II., p. 3.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 3
The following is the continuation of Feria's letter, in which,
after Philip's decision to marry the French King's eldest
daughter, Elizabeth of Valois — Elizabeth of England having
declined him with thanks — the Count told his master,
frankly and bitterly, that " we have lost a kingdom body
and soul : "
THE COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, April n, 1559.
. . . Now that God has deigned to send this great
boon of peace to Christendom, and your Majesty is
more at leisure to attend to other obligations, I think
it is time to consider how things are going to end
here. This business is divided into two heads, first,
that of religion, and whether your Majesty is bound
in this respect I do not inquire, although the
Catholics claim that notwithstanding the country
having been at the disposal of your Majesty to be
treated as you wished, it has come to its present
pass. The other head is the question of the State,
and the necessity of preventing the King of France
from dominating the kingdom, for which object he
has two circumstances so favourable to him, namely,
the just claims of the Queen of Scots, and the great
ease with which he could take possession owing to
the miserable state in which the country is, as I have
informed your Majesty several times since I came
hither, and I think it has been growing worse every
hour. I have done my best to carry out your
Majesty's commands to try and tranquillise the
country and please the Queen, and to hold my hand
in religious affairs, and at the same time to push
them on to make peace, without any responsibility
weighing on your Majesty with regard to the con-
ditions under which it was made, and this I have
succeeded in doing, as your Majesty is more free than
ever therefrom. But it behoves me to consider
whether, with things as they are, your Majesty
can be assured of that which is desirable, because
B 2
4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
as I understand — leaving aside God's affairs and
religious matters unredressed — now that these people
are better able to do as they like than at any time
since this woman became Queen, all the time which
maybe allowed them to carry out their heresies will
be pernicious to the tranquillity and quietude of the
country, and may give rise to tumult.
And besides this, whenever the King of France
finds means in Rome to get this woman declared
a heretic, together with her bastardy, and advances
his own claim, your Majesty will be more perplexed
what to do than at present, because I do not see how
your Majesty could in such case go against God and
justice, and against the Catholics, who will doubtless
join him (the King of France) if he comes with the
voice of the Church behind him. To let him take the
country, which he will do with so much ease that I
dread to think of it, would be to my mind the total
ruin of your Majesty and all your States, and seeing
things in this light, as I do, and to fail to inform your
Majesty, would, in my opinion be a crime worthy of
punishment both towards God and your Majesty.
They tell me the Swedish ambassador has again
pressed the matter of the marriage, and told the
Queen that the son of the King his master was still
of the same mind, and asked for a reply to the letter
he brought last year.1 The Queen replied that the
letter was written when she was Madam Elizabeth,
and now that she was Queen of England he must
write to her as Queen, and she would give an answer.
She did not know whether his master would leave
his kingdom to marry her, but she would not leave
hers to be monarch of the world, and at present she
would not reply either yes or no. With this message
1 This was during the last months of Mary's reign — a critical
period for Elizabeth, then living in retirement at Hatfield and
careful to make no false move which might place in jeopardy her
rights to the succession. The King of Sweden had sent her a secret
proposal for her hand, on behalf of his eldest son Eric, but she had
declined to enter into any negotiations of the kind which were
not first submitted to Mary.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 5
a secretary who came here this winter was despatched,
the ambassador remaining here. About a week ago
this secretary came back and brought a grand present
of tapestries and ermine for the Queen, and says that
his master will send very shortly one of the principal
lords of his kingdom to treat of the marriage. He
had audience of the Queen yesterday. I do not know
what passed. . . .
I had written thus far three days ago, and have
detained the post in the hope of seeing the Queen before
despatching the letter. 1 have not seen her, but in
order to keep your Majesty well informed I have
thought best to send it off. The only thing fresh
that I can say is that no class of people in the
country, so far as I know, is pleased with the way in
which your Majesty has made peace. The Catholics
are grieved that your Majesty should have married
away from here, and the heretics are in a state of great
alarm at the thought that everybody is arming against
them. The Queen has already declared in Parliament
that she will not be called head of the Church, whereat
the heretics are very dissatisfied. Cecil went yester-
day to the lower house and told them from the Queen
that she thanked them greatly for their goodwill in
offering her the title of supreme head of the Church,
which out of humility she was unwilling to accept,
and asked them to devise some other form with
regard to the supremacy or primacy. He was
answered that it was against the word of God and
the Scripture, and they were surprised at his coming
to them every day with new proposals and objections.
The heretics — as Feria persistently called the Reformers,
who had always regarded Elizabeth as the heroine of their
religion, had expected more than she was prepared to give
immediately upon her accession. It was no part of her
policy to rush matters in this direction. No ruler ever
ascendecLihe throne of England who understood so well the
art of keeping people friendly by postponing their hopes —
" to shelve business with fair words " as Feria once expressed
6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
it — and though everyone knew that England was drawing
farther and farther away from Rome, as well as from Spain,
there was nothing in the shape of a sudden resolution to
drive the Catholics to revolt. Like her indispensable Secre-
tary of State, the wise but not heroic Cecil, she had trimmed
her religious sails discreetly through the stormy years of
Mary's reign after accepting the varied forms of Protestantism
under Edward VI. Probably she did not care enough one
way or the other to risk more than was absolutely necessary
now that she was herself seated on the throne. Calvinism
she disliked with some of her father's hatred of Lutheranism,
especially after Knox's " Blast of the Trumpet against the
Monstrous Regiment of Women " ; yet to declare herself a
Catholic and acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pope would
have been tacitly to admit her own illegitimacy, for had not
Rome pronounced as invalid her mother's marriage to
Henry VIII. ? So it suited her plans best to let her future
plans unfold themselves gradually, rather than to bring about
the sudden upheaval hoped for by the zealous Reformers
who had hurried back from exile to England as soon as they
received the eagerly awaited news of Mary's death. Their
disappointment at the slow realisation of their hopes may be
seen in the letter from Dr. Jewel, afterwards Bishop of Salis-
bury, to the great Protestant theologian with whom he had
stayed at Strasburg and Zurich after escaping from the
Marian persecutions in 1555 :
JOHN JEWEL TO PETER MARTYR.
["Zurich Letters," First Series.]
LONDON, April 14, 1559.
Our friend Sandys1 has done me much wrong;
for, notwithstanding I had already written to you,
though I earnestly besought him not to do so, he
sent you his own letter unaccompanied by mine.
However, except that I feel this duty of mine has
long been owing to you, nothing has hitherto occurred
which it would give you much pleasure to hear.
1 Dr. Edwin Sandys, formerly Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge,
afterwards successively Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and
Archbishop of York.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 7
0 [Queen] Mary and the Marian times ! With how
much greater tenderness and moderation is truth now
contended for, than falsehood was defended some
time since ! Our adversaries acted always with
precipitancy, without precedent, without authority,
without law ; while we manage every thing with so
much deliberation, and prudence, and wariness, and
circumspection, as if God Himself could scarce retain
His authority without our ordinances and precautions ;
so that it is idly and scurrilously said, by way of joke,
that as heretofore Christ was cast out by His enemies,
so He is now kept out by His friends. This dilatoriness
has grievously damped the spirits of our brethren,
while it has wonderfully encouraged the rage and
fury of our opponents. Indeed, you would hardly
believe with how much greater boldness they now
conduct themselves than they ever did before ; yet
the people everywhere, and especially the whole of
the nobility, are both disgusted with their insolent
exultation, and exceedingly thirsting for the gospel.
Hence it has happened that the Mass in many places
has of itself fallen to the ground, without any laws
for its discontinuance. If the Queen herself would
but banish it from her private chapel, the whole thing
might easily be got rid of. Of such importance
among us are the examples of princes. For whatever
is done after the example of the sovereign, the people,
as you well know, suppose to be done rightly. She
has, however, so regulated this Mass of hers, (which
she has hitherto retained only from the circumstances
of the times,) that although many things are done
therein which are scarcely to be endured, it may yet
be heard without any great danger. But this woman,
excellent as she is, and earnest in the cause of true
religion, notwithstanding she desires a thorough
change as early as possible, cannot however be
induced to effect such change without the sanction
of law ; lest the matter should seem to have been
accomplished, not so much by the judgment of
discreet men, as in compliance with the impulse of
8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
a furious multitude. Meanwhile, many alterations
in religion are effected in parliament, in spite of the
opposition and gainsaying and disturbance of the
bishops. These however I will not mention, as they
are not yet publicly known, and are often brought on
the anvil to be hammered over again. . . .
We have as yet heard nothing respecting the
Queen's marriage, an event which we all desire most
earnestly. Farewell, my father, and much esteemed
master in Christ. Yours wholly,
JOHN JEWEL.
The marriage problem probably troubled Elizabeth a good
deal more than the religious settlement. For the time being
the statutory religion was that of the Roman Church, and
she had no intention of changing it without the formal
sanction of Parliament. The question of a husband, how-
ever, could be settled by herself alone. It is only by a full
understanding of her peculiar position that it is possible to
arrive at a true estimate of her subsequent conduct. Elizabeth
was either an abandoned flirt or a victim of cruel circum-
stance which she was able to turn to England's great
advantage. The truth seems to be that " she was not as
other women," as Mary Stuart wrote in years to come on
the authority of both Lady Lennox and Lady Shrewsbury.
Ben Jonson's coarse explanation in his " Conversations with
Drummond," and other corroborative evidence,1 clearly
suggest that Elizabeth knew that she was physically
incapable of motherhood. If this were so it would account
for such strange outbursts as she poured into the sorely-
tried ears of the Earl of Sussex, years later, when almost
checkmated by one of Alen9on's despairing moves. Marriage,
she protested, had always been repugnant to her, " and she
hated it more every day, for reasons which she would not
divulge to a twin-soul, if she had one, much less to any
living creature." 2 Some hint of this disability is conveyed
in the last paragraph of Feria's next letter to the Spanish
1 One of Melville's objections to the suit of the Duke Hans
Casimir was that he had heard that Elizabeth knew herself incap-
able of bearing a child (see p. 302).
a Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. III., p. 351.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 9
King, which is worth giving at length for its intimate details
of the discussion in which the Queen closed her confession
of faith by declaring that " she hoped to be saved as well as
the bishop of Rome " :
COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
April 29, 1559.
I received your Majesty's letter of the 24th inst.
on the 2yth and went to the palace the next day.
After giving your Majesty's letter to the Queen
I spoke to her in conformity with what had been
written to me. She heard me as she had heard
me many times before, only that on this occa-
sion I spoke in your Majesty's name. Although I
tried to frighten her all I could, I kept in view the
necessity of not offending her, as they have preached
to her constantly that your Majesty and the King of
France hold her of small account, and she thinks
that the only thing she needs is to get rich. I
smoothed her down a good deal in this respect,
making her understand that your Majesty was
prompted only by your great affection for her, and
considered her harm or advantage as your own.
She answered amiably that she thanked your Majesty
for your message. Subsequently in conversation with
me she said three or four very bad things. One was
that she wished the Augustanean confession [other-
wise the confession of Augsberg] to be maintained in
her realm, whereat I was much surprised and found
fault with it all I could, adducing the arguments
I thought might dissuade her from it. She then
told me it would not be the Augustanean confes-
sion, but something else like it, and that she
differed very little from us, as she believed that God
was in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and only
dissented from three or four things in the Mass.
After this she told me she did not wish to argue
about religious matters. I told her neither did I, but
desired to know what religion it was that she wanted
io ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
to maintain, as I understood that even those who
were concerned in it were not agreed one with the
other, as was the case with all the other heretics in
Germany and everywhere else, and I was terrified to
see that whereas the other princes were laying down
their arms in order to cope with heresy, she with her
kingdom tranquil and Catholic, was doing her best to
destroy religion ; and besides this, that she wanted to
revoke the good and holy laws that God, your
Majesty, and the late Queen had enacted here. If
for no other reason than the great obligations she
owed to your Majesty she should reconsider this
matter. I for my part had done my best that your
Majesty should not hear of the small respect that had
been paid you in certain things, so as to maintain the
good relations which I desired to exist between you,
but that the present state of things was very grave,
and so notorious that your Majesty could not fail to
hear of it from other quarters even if I did not inform
you. She answered that she only intended to revoke
laws that had been passed by the late Queen before
she married your Majesty. I told her it was all one,
as they had been confirmed and upheld after her
marriage. She reminded me that she was her sister,
but I pointed out how different one obligation was
from the other.
She also said that your Majesty well knew she had
always been of the same opinion, and the Queen as
well, but I assured her that your Majesty had never
heard such a thing. She was very emphatic in
saying that she wished to punish severely certain
persons who had represented some comedies in which
your Majesty was taken off. I passed it by and said
that these were matter of less importance than the
others, although both in jest and earnest more respect
ought to be paid to so great a prince as your Majesty,
and I knew that a member of her Council had given
the arguments to construct these comedies, which is
true, for Cecil gave them, as indeed she partly
admitted to me.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" n
She then said that as these were matters of
conscience, she should in life and death remain of
the same way of thinking, and would be glad of three
hours' talk with your Majesty. At the end of the
colloquy she said she hoped to be saved as well as
the bishop of Rome. I told her of the good offices
your Majesty had rendered to her with the Pope, in
order that he should not proceed against her, and
asked her not to let them persuade her that this was
a small matter, as for a schism less grave than
heresy, a King of Navarre had been deprived of his
kingdom by a sentence of the Pope, and remained
without it to this day. ... It is very troublesome to
negotiate with this woman, as she is naturally
changeable, and those who surround her are so blind
and bestial that they do not at all understand the
state of affairs.
They talk a great deal about the marriage with
Archduke Ferdinand, and seem to like it, but for my
part I believe she will never make up her mind to
anything that is good for her. Sometimes she
appears to want to marry him, and speaks like a
woman who will only accept a great prince, and then
they say she is in love with Lord Robert [Dudley] and
never lets him leave her. If my spies do not lie,
which I believe they do not, for a certain reason
which they have recently given me, I understand she
will not bear children, but if the Archduke is a man,
even if she die without any, he will be able to keep
the kingdom with the support of your Majesty. I am
of this opinion, and the reasons I have shall be placed
before your Majesty when I arrive. I beg your
Majesty to order this business of the Archduke's
marriage to be well-considered and discussed, as the
tranquillity of Christendom and stability of your
Majesty's dominions depend upon it. ...
The Queen's repeated declarations in favour of single
blessedness were all the harder to believe when she knew,
as well as did her anxious Councillors, that an heir to the
12 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
throne would have strengthened her position enormously.
Whatever it was, her secret suited England's policy as none
of her statesmen at the time could realise. It enabled her to
play the lover with impunity until every marriageable prince
in Christendom had been tempted with her hand, and until
England's two great rivals, France and Spain, were so crippled
as to leave the balance of power in Elizabeth's hands. Per- .
haps it also accounts for her reckless conduct with suchJ
licensed favourites as Dudley, presently the Earl of Leicester,;
whose familiarities with the Queen scandalised people who
in those coarser times were not easily srlocked.
It was not the first occasion that she had declared her pre-
ference for the virgin state when, after her accession, her
Councillors begged her to choose a husband. In her brother's
reign she was offered — as she told Sir Thomas Pope — " a
very honourable marriage," but had begged leave "to remain
in that estate I was, which of all others liked me best ; " and
afterwards, in Mary's reign, when the King of Sweden made
his secret proposal for her hand on behalf of his son, she
assured her sister that " I so like this estate, as I persuade
myself there is not any kind of life comparable unto it."1
In her very first Parliament, too, she assured the Commons
that it would be a full satisfaction both for the memorial of
her name and for her glory, if when she died it were engraven
upon her marble tomb : " Here lieth Elizabeth, who reigned
a Virgin and died a Virgin." Yet the question of a husband
became urgent and insistent. " After all," wrote Feria to
Philip of Spain in February, "everything depends on the
husband she chooses."2 The hope of the Spaniards, now
that Philip himself had been rejected, rested in the candi-
dature of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, and for a
time this seemed to be the likeliest match among the
foreigners. At home, however, there had lately come to
the front the dashing and ambitious son of the late Duke of
Northumberland, Lord Robert Dudley, the Queen's Master
of the Horse and indispensable companion. Dudley soon
completely displaced the old Earl of Arundel and other
English nobles who fondly imagined themselves to be in the
1 " Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth," p. 237.
a Ibid., p. 314.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 13
running. Elizabeth still had a word of encouragement for
each, for it flattered her vanity to be surrounded by such
ardent admirers, besides fitting in well with her diplomatic
policy of playing off one lover against another, and keeping
them all at her feet. Lord Robert, however, was now first
favourite, and, as the Spanish ambassador suggests, already
regarded by some people as her future husband. The only
obstacle, it was believed, was poor Amy Robsart, then said
to be ill :
THE COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
April 18, 1559.
. . . During the last few days Lord Robert has
come so much into favour that he does whatever he
likes with affairs, and it is even said that her Majesty
visits him in his chamber day and night. People talk
of this so freely that they go so far as to say that his
wife has a malady in one of her breasts, and the Queen
is only waiting for her to die to marry Lord Robert.
I can assure your Majesty that matters have reached
such a pass that I have been brought to consider
whether it would not be well to approach Lord Robert
on your Majesty's behalf, promising him your help
and favour and coming to terms with him.
The marriage with the Archduke Ferdinand appears
to me not to be a bad expedient, as I see none better
than he for matters on this side, and so far as regards
the other side your Majesty would do well to attract
and confirm him in his friendship, so that he may see
how useful it will be for his aggrandizement and
stability. . . . The Emperor and his sons apparently
will not understand that your Majesty's influence in
this matter is so great that it may be said to be in
your gift, and it is probable that they have given rise
to the same feeling here. To counteract this I think
it will be best to buy Ferdinand's friendship with
money, as he has none, not only finding him a sum
for his coming hither if the affair is carried through,
but also a regular payment every year, instead of the
i4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
pensions which were paid to these people here, and
which have had so little effect, as your Majesty has
seen. Besides the ancient treaties between your
Majesty's predecessors and the kings of this country
your Majesty could also arrange with him, in the form
which may seem best to you, to bind himself to remedy
and restore religion, to which I cannot persuade
myself that your Majesty is indifferent. This appears
to me to be the best way for the present ; the cheapest
and most convenient, and to neglect any effort in this
direction would be a great pity. If Ferdinand is a
man, backed up as he will be by your Majesty, he will
be able not only to reform religion and pacify the
country, but, even though the Queen may die, to keep
the country in his fist, and, if anything besides God's
cause has led me to hope that your Majesty might
again get a footing here, it was this. I feel sure that
any of your Majesty's affairs will encounter great
difficulty in negotiation with the Emperor and his
sons, and as I look upon this matter as of the highest
importance for your Majesty and your dominions, as
well as for God's sake, I wish to leave no stone un-
turned.
Lord Robert Dudley had played his cards well since Eliza-
beth made him her Master of the Horse. He was ready
ostensibly to support the Austrian match, knowing full well
that religious scruples would prevent it from ever taking
place. H'e did not bring his own wife to Court, probably
realising that Elizabeth had no use for her. Dudley had
married Amy Robsart — heiress and only legitimate child of a
Norfolk Knight — eight years before this new reign began,
and the disease from which she was now suffering soon gave
rise to uglier rumours than those referred to in Feria's last
letter. Two of Lady Robert's own letters survive, but they
throw little light on her relations with her husband. One,
preserved at Longleat, is to a woman tailor, relating to a
fashionable costume of the period ; the other, which follows,
proves, if it may be said to prove anything in that direction,
that Dudley could be a considerate master, whatever his
ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER
From a water colour drawing in the British Museum by George Perfect Harding,
after an original painting
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 15
faults may have been as a husband. The year in which the
letter was written is unknown :
LADY ROBERT DUDLEY TO MR. FLOWERDEW.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."]
Mr. Flowerdew, —
I understand by Grise that you put him in remem-
brance of what you spoke to me of concerning the
going of certain sheep at Siscombe, and although I
forgot to move my lord thereof before his departing,
he being sore troubled with weighty affairs, and I not
being altogether in quiet for his sudden departing, yet
notwithstanding, knowing your accustomed friendship
towards my lord and me, I neither may nor can deny
you that request in my lord's absence of mine own
authority, yea and it were a greater matter, as if any
good occasion may serve you, so try me ; desiring you
further that you will make sale of the wool so soon as
is possible, although you sell it for vi.'s the stone, or
as you would sell for yourself ; for my lord so earnestly
required me at his departing to see those poor men
satisfied as though it had been a matter depending
upon life ; wherefore I force not to sustain a little loss
thereby, to satisfy my lord's desire ; and so to send
that money to Grise's house to London, by Bridewell,
to whom my lord hath given order for the payment
thereof. And thus I end, always troubling you, wish-
ing that occasion serve me to requite you ; until that
time I must pay you with thanks. And so to God I
leave you, from Hays, this 7 of August.
Your assured during life,
AMYE DUDLEY.
Elizabeth and Dudley had much in common. They were
about the same age, were fellow prisoners in the Tower
during the first year of Mary's reign, though it is unlikely
that they caught more than a passing glimpse of each other,
if so much as that ; and neither of them set up to be a
paragon either of virtue or piety. His position at Court
was only seriously challenged at this period by Sir William
16 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Pickering, a courtier who fled the country in Mary's reign
for his share in Wyatt's conspiracy, but won his pardon by
double-dealing with the Spaniards. He was a man, according
to Paulo Tiepolo, of about thirty-six years of age, " of tall
stature, handsome, and very successful with women, for he
is said to have enjoyed the intimacy of many and great
ones." l Pickering returned from the Continent in the
spring, and was warmly welcomed for a time by those who
could see no good either in the Queen's infatuation for Dudley,
or in her marriage with a Catholic prince. His introduction
into the Queen's presence was managed while Dudley was
away on a deftly managed hunting-trip at Windsor, and it
was not long before he succeeded in making some impression
upon Elizabeth's susceptible heart :
THE COUNT DE FERIA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
May 10, 1559.
... I have not heard that anything more has been
done on the other side about the marriage of the
Archduke, and not even what your Majesty had
arranged in the business. I want the matter pressed
so as to make this woman show her hand. Some-
times I think she might consent to it, and at other
times that she will not marry, and has some other
design. Pickering arrived here on the night of Ascen-
sion Day and has been much visited by the Queen's
favourites. She saw him secretly two days after his
arrival, and yesterday he came to the palace publicly,
and remained with her four or five hours. In London
they are giving 25 to 100 that he will be King. They
tell me Lord Robert is not so friendly with him as he
was, and I believe that on the first day that the Queen
saw him secretly Lord Robert did not know of it, as
^he had gone hunting at Windsor. If these things
were not of such great importance, and so lamentable,
some of them would be very ridiculous.
They are now making fewer presents to the
Swedish ambassador, and he is still very constant in
1 Venetian Papers, Vol. I., pp. 36 — 37.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 17
giving great gifts to the Queen and her adherents, in
order to try and forward the marriage with his
master. . . .
I forgot to write to your Majesty that on St.
George's Day they gave the Order to four gentlemen,
and two vacancies remain to be filled up. Those
who received it were the Duke of Norfolk, the
Marquess of Northampton, who had it before he was
attainted, the Earl of Rutland, and Lord Robert.
Bedford was much aggrieved that they did not give it
to him. He is not such a favourite as was thought.
The secretary (Cecil), Bacon, the treasurer of the
household, and Lord Robert rule everything.
Meantime, the religion of the country was being gradually,
if slowly, revolutionised, Parliament seeing to it that strict
legality should characterise every change. The battle round
the Act of Royal Supremacy raged for more than two months,
Elizabeth being determined not to take her father's old title
of " Supreme Head of the Church." " She seriously main-
tains," wrote Dr. Jewel in one of his letters, "that this
honour is^due to Christ alone, and cannot belong to any
human being soever ; besides which, these titles have been so
foully contaminated by antichrist, that they can no longer be
adopted by any one without impiety."1 Parliament com-
promised matters by inventing the phrase, " Only Supreme
Governor in the realm as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical
things or causes as in temporal," the famous Act being finally
passed on April 29, 1559. " Sensible men," as Professor
Maitland writes, " saw that, having the substance, she could
afford to waive the name " ; which is practically what the
Spanish ambassador remarked at the time in writing to the
Duke of Alba :
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUKE OF ALBA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.
LONDON, May 10, 1559.
By the Count's letter to the King you will see the
state of things here, which is the most miserable that
1 " Zurich Letters," First Series, p. 33.
E.M.S. C
i8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
can be conceived. At eight o'clock on Monday the
Queen went to Parliament and exactly confirmed
what they had adopted as they read it from a book.
She only left open for consideration the clause where
she is to take the title of head of the Church, and for
the present only assumes the style of " Governor."
This is said to have been done on the ground that she
may marry, and her husband might then tal^e the title.
It is only a question of words, as "governor" and
" head," after all, mean the same thing. Yesterday
they took the sacrament away from the palace chapel,
and some sort of Mass was performed in English,
as they are doing in many parish churches. The
Bishops are ordered not to leave London without the
Queen's consent. They say the oath will at once be
proffered to them, which they will not take, and that
they will thereupon be all deprived at one blow, and
the new Bishops put in their seats. The decree is to
the effect that any person who shall oppose the
doctrine prescribed by the Queen shall lose his
patrimonial property (salaries and ecclesiastical
revenues being confiscated for a refusal to take the
oath) for the first offence, and the second offence is
punishable by death.1
The Earl of Sussex pronounced an harangue in
the upper house exhorting the Queen to uphold this
law, and saying how vain would be all their efforts if
the new enactment were not kept inviolate. One of
the members of the lower house compared the Queen
to Moses, saying that she had been sent by God to
lead the people out of bondage. The heretics of our
own times have never been such spoilt children of the
devil as these are, and the persecutors of the early
church were surely not impious enough to dare to
pass such unjust acts as these. To force a man to
1 Quadra is not strictly accurate. The penalties involved loss of
office and benefits for the first offence, and forfeiture of goods for
the second. It was only if the deprived clergy chose to attack the
supremacy that they were liable, on the third conviction, to the
penalties of treason.
19
do a thing whether he likes it or not has at all events
some form, however unjust, but to force him to see a
thing in the same light as the King sees it is absurd,
and has no form either just or unjust ; and yet such
is the ignorance here that they pass such a thing as
this. Religion here now is simply a question of
policy, and in a hundred thousand ways they let us
see that they neither love nor fear us.
That was the Catholic point of view. The Protestant
standpoint may be seen in the following letter from Dr. John
Parkhurst, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, to the Swiss
Reformer who sheltered rqany of the English exiles in
Zurich during Mary's reign :
JOHN PARKHURST TO HENRY BULLINGER.
["Zurich Letters," First Series.]
LONDON, May 21, 1559.
Jewel and I received your very courteous letter at
the beginning of April, by which I perceived your
intention of sending your son Rodolph, at some
appointed time, to improve his education at the
university of Oxford. This, however, as things now
are, I would not advise you to do ; for it is as yet a
den of thieves, and of those who hate the light. There
are but few gospellers there, and many papists. But
when it shall have been reformed, which we both
hope and desire may ere long be the case, let your
Rodolph at length come over. . . .
The Book of Common Prayer, set forth in the
time of King Edward, is now again in general use
throughout England,1 and will be everywhere, in
spite of the struggles and opposition of the pseudo-
bishops. The Queen is not willing to be called the
head of the church of England, although this title has
been offered her ; but she willingly accepts the title
of governor, which amounts to the same thing. The
1 By the Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer passed by
this parliament.
C 2
20 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
pope is again driven from England, to the great
regret of the bishops and the whole tribe of shavelings.
The Mass is abolished. The parliament broke up
on the eighth of May. . . . The bishops are in
future to have no palaces, estates, or country seats.
The present owners are to enjoy for life those they
are now in possession of. They are worthy of being
suspended, not only from their office, but from a
halter ; for they are as so many Davuses, throwing
everything into confusion. The monasteries will be
dissolved in a short time.
I cannot now write more, for within four days
I have to contend in my native place,1 both from the
pulpit and in mutual conference, with those horrid
monsters of Arianism ; for which end I have read
with much attention your very learned treatise on
both natures in Christ. I hope to come sufficiently
prepared to the contest, and so to overcome the
enemies of Christ. Christ lives, He reigns, and will
reign, in spite of Arians, Anabaptists, and papists.
. . . My wife salutes you, your wife, sons and
daughters, and all friends. She very frequently
falls into tears when any mention is made of the
ladies of Zurich. . . .
In haste.
Most entirely yours,
JOHN PARKHURST.
In another letter of the same date Parkhurst writes of the
" pseudo-bishops " that " they are now abhorred both by
God and man, and never creep out into public unless they
are compelled to do so, lest perchance a tumult should
arise among the people. Many call them butchers to their
face." It must be remembered that this was written in
Protestant London, where the Smithfield burnings were still
fresh in the citizens' minds, and the end of the papal and
Spanish regime was welcomed with greater enthusiasm than
anywhere else in England, save perhaps in some of the
seaports, which Feria always regarded as among the most
1 Guildford, Surrey.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 21
corrupt places in the kingdom. In the less densely populated
districts, especially north of the Humber, the Old Faith and
the old feudalism still held their ground. The suave Quadra,
Bishop of Aquila, who succeeded Feria, affected to view the
religious settlement with greater tolerance than did his
predecessor when discussing the changes with Cecil. His
smoother methods of diplomacy are apparent in his account
of the reception of the Emperor's ambassador, Baron
Rabenstayn, whose delicate mission it was to negotiate
a marriage between Elizabeth and the Emperor's younger
son, the Archduke Charles, Ferdinand's chances being
regarded at this time as hopeless on account of his irre-
concilable religious views. Charles was now offered as
" younger and more likely to please her " :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, May 30, 1559.
. . . On Friday morning Baron Rabenstayn, the
Emperor's ambassador, arrived here and came to
lodge in this house, which belongs to the Count de
Feria, where all honour and good treatment are
shown him. He besought an audience through
Chaloner and the lords of the Council, and I
solicited audience for myself to accompany him and
give him what aid I could, as your Majesty commands
in your letter of I7th instant. We were received on
Sunday at one, and found the Queen very fine in her
presence-chamber, looking on at the dancing. She
kept us there a long while, and then entered her room,
and I presented your Majesty's letter, and asked her
agreeably with what had previously been said on your
Majesty's behalf, to consider how suitable in all
respects would be her marriage with a son of the
Emperor, with which object the ambassador came,
and I begged her to hear him and decide the matter
with the prudence and wisdom which God had given
her, and which were so great that I had no doubt
she would easily discern how advisable such a match
would be. I did not name the archduke, because, as
22 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
I suspected she would reply excluding both of them,
I did not wish to give her an opportunity of doing so.
She at once began, as I feared, to talk about not
wishing to marry, and wanted to reply in that sense,
but I cut short the colloquy by saying that I did not
seek an answer, and only begged of her to hear the
ambassador and reply to him when she thought
proper. I then stood aside a little and left her alone
with the German.
Whilst he was with her I took Cecil apart and
talked to him about this business and others to see
what he would say. I understood from him, although
not by his words, that the Queen would refuse the
match with one of the Emperor's sons, thinking that
the Archduke Ferdinand would be proposed, as he
is the only one that these people have any know-
ledge of, and they have quite made up their minds
that he would upset their heresy. He then began
to relate the various offers of marriage that had been
made, and wanted to draw me out about some ol
them, such as that of the Duke de Nemours and
those of Englishmen. I told him my dispassionate
judgment of them, and it ended in his wanting to
satisfy me about your Majesty's offer. He said that
if it had not been for the impediment of affinity the
Queen would have married your Majesty, but the
matter involved religious questions such as the
dispensory power of the Pope, which it would be
fruitless now to discuss as the offer had fallen
through. I purposely avoided answering him,
although really I was glad to have the opportunity
of talking over these matters with him, to dissipate
the suspicion which I think he and his friends have
that they have incurred your Majesty's anger by their
change of religion. I therefore answered him without
any reproach or complaint, and only said that what
had been done in the kingdom certainly seemed to
me very grave, severe and ill-timed, but that I hoped
in God, and, if He would some day give us a council
of bishops, or a good Pope who would reform the
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 23
customs of the clergy, and the abuses of the court
of Rome, which apparently had scandalized the
provinces, all the evil would be remedied, and God
would not allow so noble and Christian a nation as
this to be separated in faith from the rest of
Christendom, to its grave peril. With regard to
your Majesty's marriage I said that God had ordered
all for the best in this great and weighty matter,
and I then turned the conversation again to the
marriages. He told me the Queen had been informed
that the Archduke [Charles] had a head larger than
that of the Earl of Bedford, and was unfit to govern,
and other things showing rather more openly than
hitherto a desire that the Queen should marry.
The ambassador ended his interview with the
Queen, quite despairing of the business, but dismissed
with great compliments and polite phrases. When I
saw this I returned to her and asked her pardon, but
said your Majesty's earnest desire to see this marriage
brought about made me bold, as I had good reason
to be, and I begged her to consider that in a matter
of this gravity touching the welfare and tranquillity
of their kingdoms, and those of their neighbours,
kings and queens could not always follow their own
desires, to the prejudice of those of their subjects,
without doing great wrong and grievous sin, and
therefore she should not consult her own inclination
about her marriage, but should look at the ruin that
would come to her country by her doing so. I said
that when she had resolved how to act in this case
she should treat of her intention frankly and sincerely
with the Emperor in order that no cause of offence
should be given to him. She knew, I said, how
honestly and kindly the worthy Germans negotiated,
and should, in order to come to a proper decision,
truly inform herself of what it behoved her to know,
as I heard that they had represented the archduke
to her as a young monster and the contrary of what
he is, for although both brothers were comely, this
one who was offered to her now was the younger
24 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
and the more likely to please her than the other who
had been spoken of before.
I thought best to speak in this way, as I had
understood in my talk with Cecil that it was
Ferdinand they dreaded, and I wanted to see how
she would answer about the other one, and so to
clear the ground and find out whether all this means
a desire not to marry at all, or simply to avoid
a Catholic husband, which in my opinion is the
principal object of the Queen and her associates in
heresy. She was all attention at this and asked me
of whom I was speaking. I told her the younger
brother and not Ferdinand, of whom the Emperor
thought he could not avail himself for this purpose,
whereas Charles possessed extremely good and fitting
qualities which I recounted at length. She was a
long while demurring and doubting and telling me
she was sure I was mistaken, as they had spoken to
her only of Ferdinand. When she was quite satisfied
about this by your Majesty's letter (whereat, as I
thought, she was pleased) she went back again to
her nonsense and said she would rather be a nun than
marry without knowing with whom, and on the faith
of portrait painters. We continued at this for some
time wasting words, and at last she said she was
resolved not to marry except to a man of worth
whom she had seen and spoken to, and she asked
me whether I thought the Archduke Charles would
come to this country that she might see him. I said
that I could well believe that he would do so willingly,
young man as he was, but I thought his father would
not consent to it, not on account of the danger, ot
which there was none, but for his own dignity's sake,
and that of the business itself. She repeated this
several times. I do not know whether she is jesting,
which is quite possible, but I really believe she would
like to arrange for this visit in disguise. I turned it
to a joke and said we had better discuss the substance
of the business, which was, after all, the "yes" or
" no " as to her own wishes, and that with regard
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 25
to her satisfaction with the individual, I would
undertake that he would not displease her, and that
the archduke had everything to gain by showing
himself. Finally it was settled that she should call
the German back again, and tell him that at my
prayer she was pleased to depute some of her
Council to hear his proposal and to give her their
advice, although she was resolved not to trust
painters, but was determined to see and know the
man who was to be her husband. We thereupon
left : the German very well pleased that the affair
had been set on foot again after he had been, as he
thought, dismissed. . . .
Although what your Majesty has often heard from
the Count de Feria in respect to the marriage is no
doubt highly probable, yet I cannot help thinking
that, so clearly is the need for her to marry being
daily more understood by herself and her advisers,
notwithstanding her disinclination to say yes, I need
not despair of her listening to the proposal, at all
events until other ambassadors arrive to engage the
attention of her advisers, for afterwards she will not
scruple to serve them in the same way she is serving
this one. The whole business for these people is to
avoid any engagement that will upset their wicked-
ness. I believe that when once they are satisfied
about this they will not be averse to Charles. I am
not sure about her, for I do not understand her.
Amongst other qualities which she says her husband
must possess is that he should not sit at home all
day amongst the cinders, but should in time of peace
keep himself employed in warlike exercises.
On the same day another long letter was sent abroad from
London, describing the reception of the splendid embassy
from France, headed by the Constable, the Due de
Montmorenci, dispatched hither for the purpose of receiving
the Queen's ratification of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis.
The letter was written by that excellent gossip II Schifanoya,
whose correspondence, discovered by Rawdon Brown in the
26 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
State Archives of Mantua, supplies us with many of the most
picturesque details of English Court life at the beginning of
Elizabeth's reign :
IL SCHIFANOYA TO THE CASTELLAN OF MANTUA.
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.]
LONDON, May 30, 1559.
On the 23rd instant, the French Ambassadors
arrived here. They were received at Dover by Lord
Cobham, with a very honourable company. On the
morrow he took them to his house, and entertained
them with hunting and hawking for two days. They
then went to Gravesend, where they found the
Admiral with another company of lords and gentle-
men, and a fair preparation of barges, to take them
by the Thames to London. On arriving at the
Tower they found awaiting them the Duke of
Norfolk, the Earl of Sussex, the Marquess ot
Northampton, my Lord Robert [Dudley], her
Majesty's Master of the Horse, with many other
lords, earls, and barons, and in short all the nobility
of the Court, well mounted and apparelled. The
Duke and the Marquess placed M. de Montmorenci
between them, the rest doing the like by the others
according to their rank, and proceeded along the
wide street of Cheapside to their lodgings in the
houses near St. Paul's belonging to the Bishop of
London, the Dean, Master Peter Vannes, and other
gentlemen thereabouts. The Ambassadors were
preceded by a great number of their own gentlemen
and of Englishmen, there being a great concourse ot
people in the streets, though it rained a little. On
dismounting they found their lodgings excellently
provided with convenient rooms and provisions for
making good cheer.
On the morrow, Wednesday the 24th, after dinner,
accompanied ut supra, they went to the Court at
Whitehall Palace, where the Queen now resides, and
having entered the great hall on the ground floor,
hung with very choice tapestries, with the canopy,
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 27
throne, and royal cushions, they were received by
the Earl of Arundel, the Lord Steward, with all the
rest of the Lords of the Privy Council, and mounting
the stairs they went to kiss [hands] and do reverence
to the Queen, who received them very joyfully and
graciously, going to meet them as far as the guard
chamber at the head of the stairs ; and being con-
ducted to the presence chamber, they presented their
credentials, and explained their embassy, everybody
standing. After conversing for an hour her Majesty
withdrew, and they were taken to the Park of the
said Palace to see a pair of bucks killed, one by dogs,
the other by archers, very much to their diversion till
the hour for supper, to which the Queen had invited
them. Meanwhile a sumptuous feast was being
prepared in the garden of the said place under the
long and wide gallery on the ground floor, which was
all hung with gold and silver brocade, and divided
into three apartments, in the centre of which was the
table prepared for her Majesty, and at a short
distance from it another for the Ambassadors. There
was also a table fifty-four paces in length for the
other lords, gentlemen, and ladies. The whole
gallery was closed in with wreaths of flowers and
leaves of most beautiful designs, which gave a very
sweet odour and were marvellous to behold, having
been prepared in less than two evenings so as to keep
them fresh.
On returning from the hunt at 6 p.m. they entered
the garden by a private gate, where they were met by
her Majesty, dressed entirely in purple velvet, with so
much gold and so many pearls and jewels that it
added much to her beauty. She took M. de
Montmorenci with her right hand and M. de Vielle-
ville with the left, and they walked in the private
orchard for more than a full hour, her Majesty
speaking with them most sweetly and familiarly in
French, as readily as she does Italian, Latin, and
Greek, all which tongues she uses at pleasure, and in
so loud a tone as to be heard by everybody. From
28 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
what I myself heard, she discoursed about her
tribulations in past times, saying that if the love
which the people bore her had not been so great,
they [the late sovereigns ?] would have put her to death
when they placed her in the Tower ; and she thanked
God, &c.
The supper hour having arrived, the trumpets
sounded, and her Majesty went to the door of the
gallery, which was however an artificial one made
of flowers, leaves, and roses. In the two corners ot
the gallery were two semicircular cupboards, laden
with most precious and costly drinking cups of gold
and of rock crystal and other jewels. The Queen,
having washed her hands, and being at table under
her canopy, insisted on having M. de Montmorenci at
her little table, which stood crosswise at the head of
the other tables. On the same platform, at the
second table, the other two Ambassadors were
seated, with the younger son of the Constable. At
the large table all the rest of the French lords and
gentlemen sat on one side, and on the other all the
ladies, of whom there was no small number, and who
required so much space on account of the farthingales
they wore that there was not room for all ; so part ot
the Privy Chamber ate on the ground on the rushes,
being excellently served by lords and cavaliers, who
gave them courage and company at their repast.
The banquet was wonderful for large and excellent
joints, but the delicacies and cleanliness customary in
Italy were wanting. It lasted for two hours, with
music of several sorts. After supper, the tables
being removed, they danced till the eleventh hour of
the night, and when her Majesty retired everybody
went to their lodgings.
Next day they returned to the Court in full dress
with the collar of St. Michael, being preceded by the
captains and others, all in pompous array, to take the
oath. They went into the chapel of the Palace,
where, in presence of the Queen, M. de Montmorenci
promised, swore, &c., and afterwards the other two
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 29
(Ambassadors) did the same, with the ceremonies,
&c. Montmorenci swore twice, once for France, and
again for Scotland ; and he offered to take the
Communion, that being Corpus Christi Day, which
festival was celebrated all over the world, except in
England, but her Majesty did not wish it ; so they
were not much edified by this omission, or by seeing
the people working all over London, and the shops
open on that day. They remained all that day at the
Court, and dined and supped with the Queen, not in
the garden, but in the large wing of the Palace, and
being seen to do so publicly, they were honoured by
everybody.
It was arranged for the morrow to go on a pleasure
excursion to Hampton Court, to see that stupendous
place, which is so replete with every convenience, and
then in the evening they were to lodge at Richmond,
but they were disturbed and kept indoors by the
coming of the hostages on that day, they not having
been able to cross the Channel all together from
Boulogne and Calais, owing to the diversity of the
winds. Next day, Saturday, the Ambassadors went
to present them [the hostages], and at the same time
to take leave to depart on the following day ; and so
all of them departed, M. de Noailles, brother of the
Bishop, who is Ambassador at Venice, and the
hostages remaining. They were accompanied to
Gravesend and the seaside by many persons, and
from what I hear they were very well satisfied both
with the kingdom and their reception.
An Ambassador from the Emperor arrived here two
days ago, and had audience yesterday. Many say he
is come to treat the marriage with Prince Ferdinand,
and that a greater personage will follow with precious
gifts, should the reply to this one be hopeful. He
came postwise, and is lodged at Durham Place.
[Jane] Dormer, Countess de Feria,1 also lodges in
1 Jane Dormer, the beautiful daughter of Sir William Dormer, and
favourite maid-of-honour of Mary I., had been married by Feria
when Spanish Ambassador in England in 1558. The Countess
30 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
the same place ; she keeps table and house there
with her mother Mistress Clarentius, and the Bishop
of Aquila, who remained here as Ambassador for
King Philip after the departure of the Count de Feria.
The Count departed a fortnight ago, and it has not
yet been heard what present the Queen made him at
his departure, saving that he asked of her as a special
favour, instead of gifts, a passport for passage to
Flanders of all the monks, friars, and nuns now here,
who were required to renounce their profession, swear
against the Pope, and observe the articles lately
enacted against the Christian and Catholic Church,
besides being expelled and driven out of their monas-
teries and convents, had they been men to consent to
this, but they had determined to die rather than
change their purpose.
The Queen did not act thus with the French Lords,
to whom she made gifts more than splendid, viz. To
M. de Montmorenci : a tankard and bason of gold of
the value of 1,400 [crowns], equivalent to 5,600 " di
questi " [English crowns ?] ; 15 cups of silver gilt with
5 covers, worth 700 [crowns] = 2,800 ; two dozen
spoons and forks of silver, gilt and worked superbly ;
two of the best and most beautiful hackneys that were
in her stall ; divers dogs — mastiffs, great and small,
hounds (scureiri), and setters — a quantity of every
sort. To M. de Vielleville : the same [articles], but
of less value, and without spoons, "pironi," hackneys,
or dogs. To the brother of M. de Montmorenci :
most valuable clothes, which had belonged to King
Edward her brother, and suitable to his person, he
being of the same age. To all the principal gentle-
men : a chain of gold each, according to their
qualities.
I have nothing else to tell you, save that, with
regard to religion, they live in all respects in the
Lutheran fashion in all the churches of London, except
St. Paul's, which still keeps firm in its former state
remained at Durham Place after her husband's departure until his
kinsman, Don Juan de Ayala, arrived to escort her to Flanders.
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 31
until the day of St. John the Baptist (24th June), when
the period prescribed by Parliament expires, the Act
being in the press, and soon about to appear ; but the
Council nevertheless sent twice or thrice to summon
the Bishop of London [Edmund Bonner], to give him
orders to remove the service of the Mass and of the
Divine office in that church ; but he answered them
intrepidly, " I possess three things, soul, body, and
property ; of the two last you can dispose at your
pleasure, but as to the soul, God alone can command
me." He remains constant about body and property,
and again to-day he has been called to the Council,
but I do not yet know what they said to him. All
the Bishops are likewise disposed to await their sen-
tence and decision, and many other prelates after
them ; which sentence and decision will soon be
known. In the interval the false preachers do not
fail to preach publicly in all the churches, demanding
their revenues. IL SCHIFANOYA.
Dr. Jewel takes up the story with his letter on the religious
situation not only in England but also in Scotland, where
John Knox, newly returned from the Continent, was infusing
fresh life into the Scottish Reformation movement and win-
ning for Calvinism what Professor Maitland describes as the
most durable of its triumphs :
JOHN JEWEL TO PETER MARTYR.
["Zurich Letters," First Series.]
LONDON, June, 1559.
And what, after all, can I write to you ? For we
are all of us hitherto as strangers at home. Return
then, you will say, to Zurich. Most earnestly do I
wish, my father, that this may some time be possible :
for, so far as I can see, there is no hope of your ever
coming to England. 0 Zurich ! Zurich ! how much
oftener do I now think of thee than ever I thought of
England when I was at Zurich ! But though, as I
observed, we are yet strangers in our own country,
we hear sometimes ineffable and inexplicable things.
Mischief, however, is often better kept at home.
32 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
As to religion, it has been effected, I hope, under
good auspices, that it shall be restored to the same
state as it was during your latest residence among us,
under Edward. But, as far as I can perceive at pre-
sent, there is not the same alacrity among our friends,
as there lately was among the papists. So miserably
is it ordered that falsehood is armed, while truth is
not only unarmed, but also frequently offensive. The
scenic apparatus of divine worship is now under
agitation ; and those very things which you and I
have so often laughed at, are now seriously and
solemnly entertained by certain persons, (for we are
not consulted,) as if the Christian religion could not
exist without something tawdry. Our minds indeed
are not sufficiently disengaged to make these fooleries
of much importance. Others are seeking after a golden,
or as it rather seems to me, a leaden mediocrity ; and
are crying out that the half is better than the whole.
Some of our friends are marked out for bishops ;
Parker for Canterbury, Cox for Norwich, Barlow for
Chichester, Scory for Hereford, and Grindal for
London ; for Bonner is ordered to vacate his see.
When they will take possession, I know not. From
this flowering I can easily guess beforehand, as you do of
wine, what kind of a vintage it will be. Our enemies
in the mean time are watching their opportunity, and
promise themselves that these things cannot last.
In Scotland we hear that there have been some
disturbances, I know not of what kind, respecting
matters of religion ; that the nobles have driven out
the monks, and taken possession of the monasteries ;
that some French soldiers of the garrison have been
slain in a riot ; and that the Queen was so incensed
as to proclaim the banishment of the preacher Knox
by sound of horn, according to the usual custom in
Scotland, when they mean to send any one into exile.
What has become of him, I know not. . . .
Knox continued to preach in defiance of the Queen-Regent,
Mary of Guise, and her French soldiers. Images
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 33
smashed, churches were wrecked, and by the end of the
month each side, Catholic and Calvinistic, had an army in
the field, the party of the Reformation being as eager to
expel the French as the English Protestants had been to
shake off the Spaniards. The French were equally deter-
mined to remain, for when Mary Stuart married the Dauphin
in April, 1558, she had^ signed a secret treaty by which,
in the event of her death without issue, Scotland was to
become a French possession, and all rights which she had
or might have to the crown of England were to follow suit.
Openly, like her boy husband, the Dauphin, and her father-
in-law, Henry II., who had long cast covetous eyes both on
Scotland and England, she had pledged her word of honour
to preserve inviolate the laws, liberties and privileges of her
native land.
This treachery of the secret pledge is an ugly blot on Mary
Stuart's escutcheon, but it must be remembered that she was
only in her early girlhood at the time, and entirely under the
influence of her uncles — especially the Duke of Guise and the
Cardinal of Lorraine — who had brought her up from child-
hood, since her betrothal to the Dauphin in the summer of
1548. Of Scotland itself she doubtless retained but a hazy
recollection, and must have known that her mother, as Queen
Regent, was also acting in accordance with the Guise's
ambitious policy. " The young Queen — then only in her
sixteenth year— probably signed these deeds," as Dr. Hay
Fleming says, " without fully realising their import. If so,
her heedlessness gives a rude shock to the panegyrics of those
apologists who speak of her precocity as phenomenal." l She
was merely a puppet in the hands of Henry II. , too, when,
upon the death of Mary I., she quartered the arms of England
with those of France and Scotland. The English heralds
reported upon this as follows :
THE HERALDS TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.
[Strype's ''Annals of the Reformation."}
June, 1559.
It may please your grace, that upon good delibera-
tion, we, Garter and Clarencieux, with others of the
1 "Mary Queen of Scots," p. 24.
E.M.S. D
34 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
office, have perused this escutcheon of arms delivered
by your grace ; and we find the same prejudicial to
the Queen's Majesty, her state and dignity ; and that
it doth not appertain to any foreign prince, what
marriage soever he hath made with England, to
quarter, bear, or use the arms of England otherwise
than in pale, as in token of marriage. And albeit
James, late Scottish King, grandfather to the Scottish
Queen that now is, married with one of the daughters
of King Henry VII., the said Scottish Queen, being
but one of the collaterals, cannot, nor ought not, to
bear any escutcheon of the arms of England : nor yet
the Dauphin, her husband, in the right of her, or
otherwise. Furthermore, we find the said escutcheon
falsely marshalled, contrary to all law and order of
arms.
Hence the appearance upon the scene of a new lover for
Elizabeth in James Hamilton, third Earl of Arran, heir of
the Duke of Chatelherault, who was next in the order of
succession to the Scottish throne, and had been forced to
abdicate the regency in 1554 in favour of Mary of Guise.
Both Mary Stuart and her husband were known to be
delicate. In the event of her death without issue and the
marriage of Arran with the Queen of England, who could
prevent the two kingdoms from becoming united ? Dr.
Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, discloses some inkling of this
scheme in his next letter to his master :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, July i, 1559.
About three days since, Thomas Randolph, brother
of the Randolph, one of your Majesty's servants,
arrived here from France, and at once went to see
the Queen. He told her how the Dauphin had
ordered the arms of England to be emblazoned with
his own in many places, and it was said that he
would shortly proclaim himself King of England.
Randolph says that after the Queen had heard all
" DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 35
about it, she told him that she would take a husband
who would give the King of France some trouble,
and do him more harm than he expected. She gave
him 200 ducats and ordered him to return to France
immediately. He was to leave last night. I hear
that the Duke of Chatelherault [Arran] is in England
and very near London. The day before yesterday
Cecil, after having been in and out several times with
advices for the Queen, left suddenly with only two
servants. I have been unable to find out whither he
has gone, although I have tried to do so in several
ways, but the accounts all differ. I am sure he has
gone to speak with the Duke, and we shall soon have
news of this marriage, for it is not to be believed that
they would have received the Duke at such a time as
this, and endanger their friendship with the French,
unless the thing were settled, and he was to tye
something more than a guest.
Both Cecil and Elizabeth saw the advantage of moving in
the matter, either by way of matrimony, or of helping Arran
as judiciously as possible to stir up strife in Scotland. At
that time the Earl, who had served as Captain of the Scots
Guards in France, was in hiding, his Calvinistic leanings
having caused the French King to order his capture, alive or
dead. Three days before Quadra wrote the foregoing letter
Throckmorton sent a messenger to Cecil, who put the matter
in a nutshell :
SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR WILLIAM
CECIL.
[Forbes's "Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth."]
PARIS, June 28, 1559.
Sir, it may like you to understand that this bearer,
Sandy Whitlow, is repairing through England into
Scotland, and for the service he has done and may
do, I thought good to recommend him unto you, so
that he may find some favour and benefit for his good
zeal and service done to the Queen's Majesty. He
D 2
36 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
is, as I understand, in great credit in Scotland with
all the Protestants of all estates, and (I think) will
be as meet an instrument to advance the Queen's
Majesty's service in Scotland as may be found.
Marry, it shall be good that you understand afore-
time, about the death of the Cardinal of St. Andrews,
there hath been unkindness between this said bearer
and the Duke [of Chatelherault] the late Governor of
Scotland ; so he is not the best to deal with the said
Governor, but rather with the principal parties which
attempt the broil in Scotland for matters of religion.
He seems to me heartily and earnestly to wish
that this may be the means to unite England and
Scotland together : saying, there is no foundation nor
league durable nor available, but in God's cause :
" And now," saith he, " you have a Queen, and we
our prince the Earl of Arran, marriable both, and the
chief upholders of God's religion ; for which cause
there be many that do conspire against them both."
The whole nation of the Scots do say that the Earl
of Arran must needs be the worst Frenchman that
ever came out of Scotland ; so unkindly have they
handled him in France. And further to incense the
French against the Scots, there hath chanced since
the Earl of Arran's departure a brawl between certain
Frenchmen and the men at arms of the said Earl of
Arran's band ; so as there hath been slain one of the
said Earl of Arran's band, and four or five of the
Frenchmen.
It shall be, in my poor opinion, expedient that with
as convenient speed as may be you advertise either
Sir James Croft or Sir Henry Percy, that the
French King hath lately sent certain commissioners
to apprehend the Earl of Arran, with great severity
and extremity, to bring him either alive or dead.
Whereupon, the said Earl of Arran, to save his life,
is fled, no man can tell whither : and since his depar-
ture great ungentleness and extremity hath been
shown, not only to his band, but to all such as were
thought to favour him : inasmuch as, contrary to
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 37
the old league between France and Scotland, the
band of men-at-arms of Scotsmen, which by the
said league were ever under a Scottish Captain, are
now either utterly ceased, or appointed to be under
the leadership of the Duke of Longueville. And
further it may be said that when M. de Mompesat,
one of the commissioners to bring the said Earl
of Arran, went to excuse himself to the Queen-
Dauphiness for obeying the French King's command-
ment in executing such a matter against her kinsman
the Earl of Arran, the said Queen-Dauphiness made
answer that he could not do her a greater pleasure
than to treat the Earl of Arran as an arrant traitor.
Sir, methinketh, if these matters could be speedily
brought to the ears of the Earl of Arran's father and
kinsfolk, and generally to all the Protestants of Scot-
land, it should serve well to the advancement of the
Queen's Majesty's service. . . .
Thomas Randolph, who had been sent by Cecil to keep in
touch with Arran, had succeeded in conveying him, disguised as
a merchant, to Zurich, where he visited Peter Martyr and
other reformers. He started from Lausanne for England on
July 6, travelling incognito as M. de Beaufort. The news
that Henry II. had been mortally wounded at the tournament
in Paris on June 30, held in celebration of the peace of
Cateau-Cambresis, and the marriage alliance with Philip II.,
may have hastened his departure. A new situation had now
arisen in France which pleased Elizabeth mightily. Mary
Stuart, it is true, was Queen Consort of France as soon as
Henry died of his wound on July io,but her immature husband,
Francis II. — two years younger than herself — was King in
name only, the real rulers being the Guises, who, in taking
over the reins of government, created a France which, as
Elizabeth knew, was no longer united. It was not difficult '
to encourage revolt in Scotland, where the Lords of the Con-
gregation were already up in arms against Mary of Guise.
Quadra realised the danger both to the Spanish and the
Catholic causes, and did not disguise his fears in his next
letter to Philip II. :
38 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, July 12, 1559.
... I have since received another letter from
your Majesty, dated the gth instant, instructing me
what to do when Don Juan de Ayala arrives, which
instructions shall be carried out unless in view of the
death of the King of France (of which the Queen
received news to-night), Don Juan should think well to
suspend action until receiving fresh orders from your
Majesty. The joy of the Queen was very great, and
she at once sent the news to the Emperor's
ambassador. I conversed yesterday with some of the
Frenchmen here, and they confess that the Scottish
affair is lost. They have news that the Queen
Regent is in a corner awaiting succour, that they have
attacked and taken the town of St. John (Perth) and
that the whole country is up. The question is not
religion but rebellion, and, the King being dead, the
remedy is difficult, particularly as things here, religous
and otherwise, will get much worse if they are allowed
to have their way. I cannot help telling your Majesty
how greatly many of the godly here, and persons well
versed in public affairs, are astonished to see that this
Queen is allowed to proceed with her designs, to the
manifest peril to the faith and the neighbouring king-
doms. In six months shehas revived heresy and encour-
ages it everywhere to such an extent that it is recovering
furiously all the credit it had lost for years past. I
well know that this question will be duly considered
in your Majesty's council, and I only venture to say
what I do in order that your Majesty may know the
opinion of the people here. At one time they
expected the remedy from your Majesty's hands, but
had recently turned towards the King of France for
it. Now that he fails them it seems that all must fall
on your Majesty's shoulders again, although at the
same time, his death greatly facilitates redress, as no
other parties exist now in the country but Catholics
and heretics, and no dependence will be placed on the
[Photo, Mansell
FRANCIS II. OF FRANCE
After the portrait by Francois Clouet at Hampton Court
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 39
new King of France for the present, your Majesty
being now the only hope of the godly and dread of the
wicked, if the latter are not allowed time to meet and
weaken the Catholic party ....
Philip had too many ecclesiastical troubles of his own to
interfere just then either in English or Scottish affairs, even
on behalf of the religion of which he was the avowed
champion. Quadra therefore had good reason for bitterness
and despair as he stood helplessly watching the undoing of
the Old Faith in the land which had so lately been little
more than a Spanish possession :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, July 27, 1559.
I have lost all hope in the affairs of this woman. She
is convinced of the soundness of her unstable power,
and will only see her error when she is irretrievably
lost. In religious matters she has been saturated
ever since she was born in a bitter hatred to our faith,
and her one object is to destroy it. If your Majesty
were to give her life and all in it, as you did once be-
fore, she would never be more friendly than she is
now, and she would, if she had the power, sow heresy
broadcast in all your Majesty's dominions to-day, and
set them ablaze without compunction. Besides this,
her language (learnt from Italian heretic friars who
brought her up) is so shifty that it is the most difficult
thing in the world to negotiate with her. With her
all is falsehood and vanity.
Scottish affairs were equally gloomy from the Catholic
standpoint, though needless to say such men as Dr. Sandys
were as jubilant on that account as Quadra was dismayed.
JOHN JEWEL TO PETER MARTYR.
["Zurich Letters," First Series.]
LONDON, August i, 1559.
. . . Everything is in a ferment in Scotland.
Knox, surrounded by a thousand followers, is holding
assemblies throughout the whole kingdom. The old
4o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Queen (Regent) has been compelled to shut herself
up in garrison. The nobility, with united hearts and
hands, are restoring religion throughout the country,
in spite of all opposition. All the monasteries are
everywhere levelled with the ground : the theatrical
dresses, the sacrilegious chalices, the idols, the altars,
are consigned to the flames ; not a vestige of the
ancient superstition and idolatry is left. What do
you ask for ? You have often heard of drinking like a
Scythian ; but this is churching it like a Scythian. The
King of France that now is, styles himself King of
Scotland, and in case of anything happening to our
Queen, (which God forefend !) heir of England. You
must not be surprised if our people are indignant at
this ; and how the matter will at length turn out, God
only can determine. A common enemy perhaps, as
is sometimes the case, may be the occasion of
reconciling with us our neighbour Scotland ; in
which event, although the marriage [Elizabeth's]
should also take place, — but I will not prognosticate.
Master Heton salutes you, and that not less affec-
tionately than if you were his father. Some of us are
appointed to the bishopricks ; Cox to Ely, Scory to
Hereford, Allen to Rochester, Grindal to London,
Barlow to Chichester, and I, the least of the apostles,
to Salisbury. But this burden I have positively
determined to shake off. In the meantime there is a
dismal solitude in our Universities. The young men
are flying about in all directions, rather than come to
an agreement in matters of religion.
But my companions are waiting for me, and calling
to me to set off. Farewell, therefore, my father, and
my pride. . . .
Yours every way most attached.
JOHN JEWEL.
Knox was adding fuel to the fire with both hands in
Scotland, but he was the wrong man to encourage Elizabeth's
open assistance, and he went the wrong way to work. He
knew, as he informed Cecil, that his name had become odious
to her through his "First Blast " against feminine rule. As
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 41
she took no notice of a message which he sent to her through
Cecil, disclaiming any intention of offending Elizabeth her-
self, he wrote her a letter direct which was hardly calculated
to smooth her maiden majesty's ruffled feathers — if indeed it
ever reached her. Cecil is said to have withheld Knox's
letters from his irascible mistress, who might only vent her
wrath upon his own devoted head. Possibly he deemed it
prudent to run no risk in this case :
JOHN KNOX TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, July 20, 1559.
To the virtuous and godly Elizabeth by the grace
of God Queen of England, &c., John Knox desireth
the perpetual increase of the Holy Spirit.
As your grace's displeasure against me, most
unjustly conceived, hath been and is to my wretched
heart a burden grievous and almost intolerable : so
is the testimony of a clean conscience to me a stay and
uphold that in desperation I sink not. Maliciously
or of purpose, I never offended your grace nor your
realm. I cannot deny writing a book against the
usurped authority and unjust regiment of women,
nor am minded to retract any principal point thereof,
till truth and verity further appear. But why your
grace, or these that favour the liberty of England,
should be offended with the author, I can perceive no
just occasion, for my book touches not your grace's
person in especial, nor is it prejudicial to the liberty
of the realm, if the time and my writing be
indifferently considered. How could I be enemy to
your grace's person ? For deliverance whereof, I did
more study, and enterprised farther, than any of those
that now accuse me. And as concerning your regi-
ment, how could, or can, I envy that which most I
have trusted, and for the which (as oblivion will
suffer) I render thanks unfeignedly unto God ? which
is that it hath pleased Him of His eternal goodness,
to exalt your head (which .... times was in danger
to the manifestation of His glory and extirpation of
42 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
idolatry.) For any other offence against England,
I will let moderate and indifferent men judge
between me and my accusers. To wit, which of the
parties do most hurt the liberty of England — I that
affirm that no woman may be exalted above any
realm to make the liberties of the same thrall to a
strange, proud and cruel nation ; or they that approve
whatsoever pleases princes for the time ? If I were
as well disposed to accuse, as some of them (to their
own shame) have declared themselves, I nothing
doubt but that in few words I should let reasonable
men understand that some that this day lowly crouch
to your grace, and labour to make me odious in your
eyes, did in your adversity neither show themselves
faithful friends to your grace, nor yet so loving and
careful over their native country as now they would
be esteemed.
Nothing in my book is or can be prejudicial to
your grace's just regiment, provided ye be not found
ungrateful to God. Ungrateful ye shall be proved in
presence of His throne (howsoever that flatteries
justify your fact), if ye transfer the glory of that
honour in which ye now stand to any other thing,
than to the dispensation of His mercy, which only
maketh that lawful to your grace which nature and
law deny to any woman. Neither would I that your
grace should fear that this your humiliation before
God should in any case infirm or weaken your just
and lawful authority before men. Nay Madam, such
unfeigned confession of God's benefits received, shall
be the establishment of the same not only to yourself
but also to your seed and posterity ; where contrari-
wise, a proud conceit and elevation of yourself shall
be the occasion that your reign shall be unstable,
troublesome and short. God is witness that un-
feignedly I love and reverence your grace, yea, I
pray that your reign may be long, prosperous and
quiet, and that for the quietness which Christ's
members, before persecuted, have received under
you. But yet if I should flatter your grace, I were
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 43
no friend, but a deceiving traitor. And therefore of
conscience I am compelled to say, that neither the
consent of people, the process of time, nor multitude
of men, can establish a law which God shall approve,
but whatsoever he approveth (by His eternal word)
that shall be approved ; and whatsoever He condemns
shall be condemned, though all men in earth would
hazard the justification of the same. And therefore,
Madam, the only way to retain and to keep those
benefits of God abundantly poured now of late days
upon you, and upon your realm, is, unfeignedly to
render unto God, to His mercy and undeserved
grace, the whole glory of this your exaltation. Forget
your birth and all title which thereupon doth hinge,
and consider deeply how for fear of your life ye did
decline from God, and bow to idolatry. Let it not
appear a small offence in your eyes, that ye have
declined from Christ Jesus in the day of His battle,
neither yet would I that ye should esteem that mercy
to be vulgar and common which ye have received : to
wit, that God hath covered your former offence, hath
preserved you when ye were most unthankful, and
in the end hath exalted and raised you up not only
from the dust, but also from the portals of death,
to rule above his people, for the comfort of His
Church.
It appertaineth to you therefore to ground the
justice of your authority, not upon that law which
from year to year doth change, but upon the eternal
providence of Him who contrary to nature, and
without your deserving, hath thus exalted your head.
If thus in God's presence ye humble yourself, as in
my heart I glorify God for that rest granted to His
afflicted flock within England under you, a weak
instrument, so will I with tongue and pen justify your
authority and regiment, as the Holy Ghost hath
justified the same in Deborah, that blessed mother
in Israel ; but if, these premises (as God forbid)
neglected, ye shall begin to brag of your birth, and
to build your authority upon your own law, flatter you
44 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
whoso list, your felicity shall be short. Interpret my
rude words in the best part, as written by him who is
no enemy to your grace. By divers letters I have
required licence to visit your realm, not to seek
myself, neither yet my own ease or commodity, which
if you now refuse and deny, I must remit my cause
unto God, adding this for conclusion, that commonly
it is seen that such as refuse the counsel of the faithful
(appear it never so sharp) are compelled to follow the
deceit of flatterers to their own perdition. The
mighty spirit of the Lord Jesus move your heart to
understand what is said, give unto you the discretion
of spirits, and so rule you in all your actions and
enterprises, that in you God may be glorified, His
Church edified, and ye yourself, as a lively member of
the same, may be an example and mirror of virtue
and of godly life to others. So be it.
JOHN KNOX.
Several dark plots against England were hatched at this
time by the Spaniards. Camden asserts that in their
fear that France would obtain England by means of Mary
Stuart they seriously contemplated having a candidate ready
of their own, planning for this purpose to carry off Lady
Catherine Grey, sister of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, and
a claimant to the succession through the Suffolk line. Sir
Thomas Cbaloner, the Queen's Ambassador in the Nether-
lands— whence Philip was about to sail to his beloved Spain,
never to return — corroborates this statement in his letter to
the Queen herself.
SIR THOMAS CHALONER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."]
August 3, 1559.
Ill reports of your Majesty be here delivered ; the
ground I think to be the frustrated suit of the King
in his marriage with you — although, whatever rage
they bear to us, they pretend it for the alteration ot
religion by your Majesty. Count Feria told me he
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 45
was sorry to see your present enemy the French only
gaping for opportunity, you being without money, men,
armour, fortresses, practice in war, or good Captains :
" And what a Council ! " quoth he, and so began say-
ing that England would be another Milan to set the
princes together by the ears — that the young King
was ruled by your great enemy the Guises, and you
should have heard of them before this, if his master
would have given assent. Though the Spaniards do
somewhat dislike us, yet in this low part in all
conferences they take our part. A plot [has been]
discovered by one Hoggin, that before the French
King's death, the Spaniards meant to have stolen the
Lady Catherine Grey, whom they meant either to
marry to the Prince of Spain, or some other of less
degree, if less depended on her. They take her
discontented, not esteemed of your Highness nor her
friends. He tells us of a letter sent from the Bishop
of Aquila, part of it containing these words, Ho tanto
tarder del Rey horn che los Ing less es se damn a Francia.
How they condemn us, because we are unarmed,
wanting exercise and soldiers ! I remember the
Count Feria would say we had matter, but wanted
form. An armed prince hath ever the quiet friend-
ship of his neighbours.
Both Feria and Quadra had kept their eyes on Lady
Catherine Grey, flattering her with golden hopes to such an
extent as somewhat to turn her head. Though given apart-
ments with her sister in the palace at Whitehall she was
dissatisfied with her position at Court, and fell a ready prey
to the designing hands of the Spaniards. She vowed that
she would neither marry nor change her religion without the
Spanish Ambassador's consent. Nothing, however, came of
the proposed attempt to carry her off, Cecil's ubiquitous
spies disclosing the plot in time to put him effectually on
guard against it. Elizabeth meantime was helping to bring
matters to a crisis by surreptitiously sending Sir Ralph
Sadler to the Scottish border with three thousand pounds
to spend there " in furtherance of our service : "
46 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
QUEEN ELIZAETH TO SIR RALPH SADLER.
[Ellis's "Original Letters," Second Series.]
August 7, 1559.
Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Like
as we have, upon great trust conceived in you, con-
ferred for special service to be done by you upon our
frontiers towards Scotland, so do we authorize you to
confer, treat, or practise with any manner of person
of Scotland, either in furtherance of our service, and
of any other thing that may tend to make a perpetual
concord betwixt the nation of Scotland and ours. We
do also authorize you to reward any manner of person
of Scotland, with such sums of money as you shall
think meet, to be taken of the sum of three thousand
pounds which we have ordered should be delivered
unto you in gold ; wherein such discretion and secrecy
is to be used, as no part of your doings may impair
the treaties of peace lately concluded betwixt us and
Scotland. And for enlargement of our further mean-
ing in this, we refer you to consider a memorial of
certain articles to be delivered to you by our Secretary,
whereunto you shall not need to have further respect
thjin the opportunity of the time will require. Given
under our Signet, the yth of August, at Nonsuch,
1559, the first year of our reign.
It was characteristic of the diplomacy of the period that on
the very day on which Elizabeth sent these secret instruc-
tions to Sadler she also wrote a letter to " our dear sister and
ally," the Queen Regent of Scotland, in which she protested
against French insinuations that her subjects had been so
unneighbourly as to meddle with her Scottish rebels, Noailles,
the French Ambassador, having lodged a complaint with
Elizabeth to that effect :
ELIZABETH TO THE QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND.
[Fronde's "History of England."]
August 7, 1559.
Right High and Right excellent Princess, our dear
sister and ally, we commend ourselves to you most
"DAUGHTERS OF DEBATE" 47
cordially. We understand from the ambassador of
our good brother the King of France, that certain of
our officers on the frontiers have held intelligence with
the rebels late in arms against your authority. We
cannot but find it very strange that any of our sub-
jects, and much more that persons in positions of
public trust, should of their own accord, and regard-
less of our displeasure, have sought means to meddle
with any such people. Forasmuch, however, as at
present we know no particulars of these things, — but,
on being well informed, will proceed to punish the
offenders — we must entreat you to specify more exactly
what you complain of, and let us know the entire truth,
to the end that after examination and proof, we may
give orders for the chastisement of such as shall be
found to have offended — which you may assure your-
self we will not fail to do ; being, as we are, most
desirous to show you that good will and friendship
which we owe you as our neighbour, and to maintain
those good relations which at present exist between
us.
A few weeks later Arran was safely smuggled into Eng-
land and lodged first at Cecil's house and afterwards in the
Royal apartments at Greenwich. Here Elizabeth, in secret,
had her first interview with the man to whom she had been
offered in vain in her childhood by her father, Henry VIII.
He was now deluded with the hope not only of sharing her
throne, but also of superseding Mary Stuart in Scotland, and
so uniting the two kingdoms under the spiritual guidance of
the reformed religion.
CHAPTER II
PLOTS AND SCANDALS
How Elizabeth Hoodwinked the French Ambassador — England's
Weakness — Quadra and the Austrian Match — Alleged Plot
against Elizabeth and Dudley — Scandalous Tales — Appeasing
the Catholics — Squabbles among Elizabeth's Suitors — Dudley
suspected of designs against his Wife's Life — Sir Thomas
Chaloner's Warning — The Scottish Rebellion — Knox on the
Beginning of the Struggle — Siege of Leith — Besiegers plead for
Elizabeth's Help — Bpthwell Captures English Money Intended
for the Rebels — Elizabeth's Denials — Cecil's Despair — The
Deciding Factor — Protest of the Catholic Bishops.
CECIL and the leaders of the Scottish revolt were strongly
in favour of the Arran match, but Elizabeth regarded the
young earl merely as another useful pawn on her diplomatic
chessboard, and used him accordingly. Even at that period
Arran's brain was not all that it might have been — he was
doomed to insanity for the last forty years of his life — but
he was overflowing with zeal when Elizabeth dispatched
him to take his share in the struggle across the border.
While feeding his hopes Elizabeth was careful also to keep
her English and foreign suitors in as good countenance as
possible. Arran was on his way to her when she paid her
state visit to Nonsuch, whence her letters had been sent to
Sadler and the Queen Regent. Nonsuch had been the
royal residence near Ewell of Henry VI II., and the lease
had apparently been obtained from Queen Mary by Arundel.
Here that would-be wooer entertained Elizabeth for several
days with the magnificence worthy of the premier earl of
England. While Arran was hiding in London, too, later
in the month, Bedford was sent to the Spanish Ambassador
to assure him " that the affair of the Archduke's marriage
was in a very good way, and he expected it would be settled " ;
but, as Quadra said to his royal master, he knew " all about
the going of the Duke of Chatelherault, or Earl of Arran
(for he is called by either name), about whom no more is
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 49
known except that he is here." * The French Ambassador
was more successfully gulled. On the day upon which
Arran, after a last interview with the Queen, went north
in the company of Thomas Randolph — their passports made
out in the names of De Beaufort and Barnabee, and every
precaution taken to prevent their identity from being dis-
covered— M. de Noailles wrote to the Queen Regent assuring
her of Elizabeth's repeated promises of good intentions
towards peace and friendship :
M. DE NOAILLES TO THE QUEEN REGENT OF
SCOTLAND.
[Teulet: " Papier s cTfetat relatifs d Vhistoire d'£cosse."]
LONDON, September i, 1559.
Madame,
Having received your packet of August i6th, with
the letters you have written to this Queen, I sent
forthwith to request audience, which was delayed
until last Tuesday, because the said Lady was taken
ill. On that day, after presenting to her your
letters and very affectionate recommendations, I told
her that having sent a nobleman to Scotland expressly
to make known to you the good and favourable
response which she had made to me regarding the
evil conduct of the Earl of Northumberland and
other Ministers of hers on the northern frontier,
you had charged me fully to make it known to her
that you were wondrously gratified at the continuance
of the good friendship and mutual understanding
which existed between the three kingdoms. Also
that you wished still further to be lightened of
the distrust and fear in which your rebels placed
you every day regarding their certainty of every
help from her and from her kingdom when they
required it, even boasting of having letters frcm the
said Lady and her Council. That arose largely from
her subjects allowing the Scots to pass too easily
into England without their holding letters from you,
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 93.
E.M.S. E
50 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
as is required by the treaty ; in regard to which
your Majesty had commanded me to make remon-
strances to her, in order that she should attend to it
in future.
Concerning these things the said Lady answered
me that, in the first place, it was quite likely that
some of her ministers had been foolish enough to
meddle with the evil practices among the Scots, but
that she had ordered an inquiry to be made, and
had sent a man expressly to set matters in order.
Nevertheless, the Congregation would find they had
greatly deceived themselves if they hoped for any
favour from her in their foolish enterprise, and that
she had neither written nor promised them anything
to that effect. Her signature was easily recognized ;
let it be produced if it could be found. She well
knew that there were men who spread wicked lies in
order to cause trouble. ... As to the Scots not
being allowed to pass into this kingdom except they
bear a letter from you : that was reasonable, and
she had not understood that it had been done other-
wise, and that she would forthwith give attention to
it. And after talking of all these things, the said
Lady showed me your portrait which she has in
her gallery at Hampton Court, not without several
references to your goodness, honesty, and virtue,
and desiring me to present to you her very affec-
tionate recommendations. And if one may judge by
outward signs, she seems, Madame, to possess nothing,
but good intentions towards the maintenance of peace
and friendship between your Majesties.
So completely was Koailles hoodwinked by Elizabeth
that five days later, in writing to M. D'Oyssel, he solemnly
related how he informed the English Queen of Arran's escape
from France, requiring her, in accordance with the terms
of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, to arrest him if he
ventured into England and return him to Paris. Elizabeth,
in no way abashed, promised that she would not fail to do
what her good brother desired, should it be in her power,
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 51
but that she had heard nothing of Arran or his doings.1
He was beginning to see through Elizabeth, however. " She
has more dissimulation than sincerity or honesty," he wrote
on October i2th, adding that "few people living can play
that game so well as she." She was equally astute in her
dealings with her lovers. To each the Queen made a point
of giving sufficient encouragement to excite the jealousy of
the others, except, perhaps, to her Swedish suitor, whose
ambassadors were openly made fun of in masques in their
own presence. " The Swedish Ambassadors," wrote Quadra
to the King of Spain, "are leaving much aggrieved and
offended, as I believe it was brought to their notice that
they were being made fun of in the palace, and by the
Queen more than by anybody."2 The ambassador of the
King of Denmark, on the other hand, " to demonstrate his
King's love for Queen Elizabeth, wore upon his gown a
crimson velvet heart pierced by an arrow." 8 Quadra's
hope, as will be seen in his next letter, written about the
same date, was that Elizabeth's double dealing would land
her into so many difficulties that she would presently be
forced to marry the Archduke Charles as her only hope of
safety :
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE EMPEROR FERDINAND I.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
Baron Preyner will have informed your Majesty
that the affairs of this country are in a very bad way,
as the Queen has thought to weaken the French by
dragging 'them into a war in Scotland, and foment-
ing religious discord in that country, and even in the
State itself. She favours the Duke of Chatelherault,
with whom she thought of marrying, and it is difficult
to see now>Jiow she can prevent her own house catching
fire. I have no doubt the King of France will very
soon be able to dispose of this country with the same
troops that he will send to subdue Scotland. He is
1 Teulet: "Papiers d'etat relatifs k 1'histoire d'Ecosse," Vol. I.,
p. 342.
a Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 93.
s Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 117.
E 2
52 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
at present submitting to any conditions for the pur-
pose of separating these people from their alliance
with the Scottish rebels, and then after he has punished
the latter, he will turn his army into this country.
This danger is enough to decide the Queen to
marry the Archduke, which would rescue her and
give the country peace and strength, but her religious
feeling runs so high that she and her Councillors will
never dare to trust his Highness. They think it
would be taken as a sign that they had some secret
understanding with my King both in religion and in
other matters. In addition to this they are so taken
up with the idea of their power and strength that it
is impossible to open their eyes, although their feeble-
ness is notorious, and they have neither money nor
fortresses in the country, they are divided amongst
themselves, and have a wilful woman for a monarch.
My King has had all this clearly pointed out to
them, but to no purpose, notwithstanding that all the
country is crying out that salvation can only come
from a marriage with the Archduke. Perhaps time
and the pressure of danger may bring the Queen to
consent to it, and if it do not then we shall not
have lost much by having patience and waiting six
months.
Quadra was voicing a widespread opinion that marriage and
Spanish protection were the only means left to save England
from falling into the hands of the French. England's fighting
strength had fallen to its lowest ebb in Mary's reign, the loss
of Calais, after being held for two hundred years, being
regarded as the measure of her weakness. The whole
population of the kingdom, including Wales, did not exceed,
it has been estimated, more than four millions, while that
of either Spain or France was probably three or four times
as great. Both powers, too, in trained troops, arms, and
artillery, were immeasurably stronger than England. It is
only by realising this that the dangers and difficulties of
Elizabeth's position may be fully appreciated. Quadra
underestimated the value of her policy of procrastination
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 53
and the increasing power of her navy. He was also hood-
winked by some wonderful story — possibly true, but more
probably concocted by Elizabeth and Dudley — of a plot to
poison both herself and her favourite during her recent
visit to the Earl of Arundel at Nonsuch. The agent em-
ployed in this new move was Dudley's sister, wife of Sir
Henry Sidney of Penshurst, and one of Elizabeth's Women
of the Bedchamber :
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
September 7, 1559.
The Emperor's Ambassador and I having been
advised by one of the ladies of the palace, a sister of
Lord Robert, called Lady Sidney, that this was the
best time to speak to the Queen about the Archduke
[Charles], the Ambassador went to Hampton Court,
where the Queen is living, to see her on the subject.
The lady would not speak herself, but urged that I
should go, and said if I broached the matter of the
match to the Queen now she was sure it would be
speedily settled. I tried to discover what this might
mean, and find that the Queen is much alarmed at a
plot which they have told her of against her and
Robert, the object of which was to kill him at a
banquet given recently to the Queen by the Earl of
Arundel, where also the Queen was to be poisoned.
This plot, together with the French war preparations
for Scotland, seems to have decided the Queen to marry,
and Lady Sidney said that at all events I ought to be
there, and must not mind what the Queen said, as it
is the custom of the ladies here not to give their con-
sent in such matters until they are teased into it.
She said it would only take a few days, and the
Council would press her to marry. Lady Sidney said
that if this were not true, I might be sure she would
not say such a thing, as it might cost her her life, and
she was acting now with the Queen's consent, but
she (the Queen) would not speak to the Emperor's
54 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Ambassador about it. We were rather undecided
what course to take for the moment, but they are
now making so much of us that all London looks
upon the affair as settled.
Lady Sidney said the Queen wished the Archduke
to come at once, and I ought to write to the Emperor
to send him, which he could do on her honour and
word, and she (Lady Sidney) would never dare to
say such a thing as she did in the presence of an
Italian gentleman, who was interpreting between us
(although we can understand each other in Italian
without him), unless it were true. I said I was not
quite sure what I ought to do, but I had no doubt the
Archduke would come if his father allowed him, and
I would write at once. I afterwards spoke to Lord
Robert, who said in this, as in all things, he was at
the disposal of my King, to whom he owed his life.
Treasurer Parry also spoke to me on the subject of
his own accord, and from him I gathered that the
Queen is driven to this by fear, and when I said what a
pity it was that the Queen was so irresolute, he said
when I next went to the Palace he hoped to give me
good news. I spoke to him about Lady Sidney, and
he said the Queen had summoned both of them the
night before, and at the end of our conversation he
said that the marriage had now become necessary.
" It is curious how things change," wrote the delighted
Quadra two days later, in telling the Duke of Alba how
" they cannot make too much of me here at Hampton Court
now." He was perfectly ready to believe Dudley when that
pliable courtier vowed that he was the most faithful servant
the Spanish sovereign had in England. " Lord Robert and
his sister," he wrote to the Bishop of Arras, " are certainly
acting splendidly, and the King will have to reward them
well." l His next letter shows how cleverly Elizabeth acted
her part, without committing herself one way or the other,
yet succeeding in satisfying the bishop that she really meant
to marry the Archduke Charles after all :
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 96.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 55
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE EMPEROR FERDINAND.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, October 2, 1559.
. . . Since the last letter to your Majesty, Lady
Sidney told the Queen everything that had passed
with me, and how she had given me hopes that this
business would be carried through, and had assured
me that the only thing wanting was that the Archduke
should come, whereupon I had said that I had written
to your Majesty to that effect on her word alone. . . .
On Thursday, when the Queen came to London, the
ambassador [Preyner] went to accompany her, and I
believe that in the barge the Queen herself began to
speak about the business to him, and he will write to
your Majesty what passed between them. I think,
however, she and he merely repeated the usual things,
although Preyner says she opened out more than
hitherto, saying that she thought she should be forced
to marry. Preyner says that all her endeavour was
to find out something about the Archduke's coming,
of which he gave her no hope, unless she first signified
her wish and summoned him, as we have always
urged, and she has always refused to do. When she
arrived I went on Saturday to inform her of the King's
arrival in Spain, and speak on other matters. After
finishing my business I was about to take my leave,
when she began to talk about the marriage, and told
me how the ambassador had spoken to her in the
barge, and gave me a long history of what had passed
between them. I let her talk, and quite understood
that she would have liked to know whether the Arch-
duke was coming, which is the only thing she thinks
about.
After letting her talk as long as she liked, I said
that I had perhaps already gone further than I ought
to have done in this business, as your Majesty had a
man of your own here, but that I knew that neither
your Majesty, nor the King my master, would regret
any effort made to forward it, and therefore I would
56 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
still give her my frank opinion, which was that she
remained in so exacting a determination, and was so
very far from answering your Majesty's request, that
no arrangement was possible. The desire of your
Majesty was to know whether she would marry the
Archduke, and her answer was that she did not want
to marry him or anybody else, and if she married at
all it would only be to a man whom she knew. In
addition to this she said that she did not wish the
Archduke to come, by any means, as she did not wish
to bind herself even indirectly to marry him. I told
her that if some compromise could not be come to it
was not worth while to lose time over it. I thought
the best way would be for her first to premise that she
had to be married, as she saw she could not avoid it,
and, since she said she would not marry a man she
did not know, that she should be pleased to let the
Archduke come over for her to see, without her being
bound more than she is at present, and that your
Majesty should be informed of this, so that if you
decided to send your son on these conditions it might
be done without loss of time. We were at this for a
long time wasting words, and at last she said the
following words to me, which I copy here that your
Majesty may the better consider them. She said,
" Shall I speak plainly and tell you the truth ? I
"think that if the Emperor so desires me for a
" daughter he would not be doing too much by
" sending his son here without so many safeguards.
" I do not hold myself of so small account that the
" Emperor need sacrifice any dignity in doing it."
By these words and her manner of saying them I
understood that she made no difficulty as to the con-
clusion of the business, but only in the procedure to
bring it about. They think we are treating the matter
punctiliously with her, and that your Majesty wishes
your son to be supplicated and summoned, which she
said she would never do ; she would rather die a
thousand deaths. She says it is not fit for a queen
and a maiden to summon anyone to marry her for her
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 57
pleasure, and Lady Sidney has said the same thing to
me many times. Seeing this, and that she made no
difficulty about the substance, I thought we need not
make any about the rest, and I told her that if this
was the only difficulty I thought none would be raised
by your Majesty in sending your son hither, but that
your Majesty could not guess that she wished to
negotiate in this way, and as the coming of the Arch-
duke might displease her, it was necessary that your
Majesty should be satisfied as to her wishes on the
point. She answered that no one would ever know
them from her, except by asking and proposing it to
her in your Majesty's name. At first I appeared
pleased at this contention, and then said be it so, and
that in the name of your Majesty I proposed to her
whether she would be pleased to allow the Archduke
to come and see her without any obligation on her to
marry him. She asked whether your ambassador or
I was commissioned to propose this. I said that if I
told her we were so commissioned she would know
that I was not telling the truth, as she was aware that
nothing had ever been said to us about the visit until
now that some of her household recommended it to
me. She thought I was going to tell her about
Lady Sidney's conversation, and drew back a little
as if surprised ; but as I saw that she did not wish
to be approached on that side I said, and repeated,
that your Majesty had never understood that it would
be a good way to negotiate to send your son to be
married in a quarter where the only answer ever
vouchsafed was that there was no idea of marrying at
all. Now, however, that it is understood that the visit
may be convenient and advantageous he perhaps
would be sent, and, with this end, I begged her to
tell me whether she would be pleased that he should
come. She smiled and said that she prevented no one
from coming to her realm, and I replied that that was
not the kind of licence I craved, for even Turks could
come in that manner, but that I wanted to know
whether she would be pleased for him to come and
58 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
see her as a suitor for her hand. She answered that
she could give no reply to that unless it was asked in
your Majesty's name. I saw this was 'only vanity,
and being desirous to obtain a reply, I said that as
she did not wish to reply to this except it came in your
Majesty's name, which she saw could not be done at
present, it occurred to me to put the question in the
name of the King my master, who as a friend and
kinsman of both parties would be glad to know her
wishes in order to be able to advise your Majesty on
the matter. She was pleased at this expedient, and,
after expressing some regret that your Majesty should
desire her so little as to need persuasion before con-
descending to send your son hither, she told me that
she would be glad for the Archduke to come, and
asked me what languages he spoke.
We chatted on the subject very pleasantly for some
time, and in a vastly different mood from her other
conversations about her not wishing to marry. So
much so that I told her that if it were not that I feared
to arouse the suspicion of those present I would kiss
her hand for such a gracious answer, and then, to
draw her out still further, I asked her whether she
thought the Archduke should come publicly or secretly,
as we wished to do nothing displeasing to her. She
drew back again at this, and said she did not wish to
be pressed any more ; he should do as he thought fit,
and she did not want to know anything about his
coming. I said I thought it would be better for him
to come privately, as I knew that was what she wished,
and she replied that she hoped to God that no evil
would befall him coming in this way. During this
conversation she reminded me that we were to agree
that she was not to be bound to marry the Archduke
if he came, and knowing that this was only dissimula-
tion, and that she really means to marry him, as I
think, for otherwise she would never consent to his
coming, which she has always refused hitherto, I
agreed to this condition, and said all should be as
she wished, and I was sure the Archduke would suffer
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 59
no loss of dignity by coming to see her Majesty, even
though she might riot marry him. I did not throw
any doubt upon his coming, as I knew it would vex
her, and, because your Majesty is not bound in any
way by what I proposed, which was all conditional on
your Majesty's will and was done in the name of the
King my master as intermediary. What I have aimed
at in these conversations is to show her that I under-
stood her, and I said I conceded at once the condition
she imposed, because I knew that the condition would
become unnecessary as soon as she saw the Archduke,
with whom she would certainly be satisfied, and whom
she would not allow to go out of England again.
Sometimes she was silent at this way of talking, but
when I pressed her much she seemed frightened, and
protested again and again that she was not to be
bound, and that she was not resolved yet whether she
should marry ; but this was after we had agreed
about the Archduke's visit. At length, to give me to
understand that she was serious in her demand, she
repeated what we had agreed upon in order that I
should put it in writing, and when I took this as a
joke she said she would not trust me, as she knew I
was deceiving her, and she would write to the King
herself, that he might bear witness that she would
bind herself to nothing, and had not asked the Arch-
duke to come. I thereupon kissed her hand and told
her I was glad that this account would not depend
upon my recollection, and I should be quite easy with
what she wrote. I expect she will write these pro-
testations very seriously, but her letter must be
explained jointly with mine, and her words need not
cause any alarm, as they are certainly nothing but
ceremony. I might easily be deceived myself, but I
do not believe that Lady Sidney and Lord Robert
could be mistaken, and the latter says he never
thought the Que'en would go so far.
Even Cecil, though perhaps preferring the Arran alliance,
promised Quadra to support the Austrian match, going so far
60 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
as to declare that they could not avoid ruin if the Queen did
not marry the Archduke. The Queen, he said, hoped that
Philip would not abandon her in this strait, " and I told him
that if this marriage were brought about I was sure that the
King would not only renew the alliance and unity with this
country, but would do more than was expected, because the
Archduke was his first cousin ; to which he replied that if
this were so he was sure the King of France would not at
present attempt the conquest of the country, as both my
King and your Majesty [the Emperor] would defend it,
which I admitted, always on condition that the marriage was
effected, but keeping silence when this condition was not
mentioned. He told me also that the Queen was sending
large forces to the frontier of Scotland and that a great fleet
was being collected ; but all this with so little spirit and in
such a manner that it is clear they are much alarmed."1
Cecil had reason to be worried — by affairs at home as well as',
across the border. The Queen made no secret of her!j
preference for her married Master of the Horse, and her
intimacy with him gave rise to scandals which added not a' :\
little to the Secretary's anxieties. Elizabeth herself was well
aware of these tales, as will be seen in Quadra's next letter : •
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, October 5, 1559.
... In my last interview with the Queen, while I
was urging and persuading her to consent to the
Archduke's visit, she said she did not dare to summon
him, as she feared he might not be satisfied with her.
I said that could not be, as she was so well endowed
by nature, and other things to the same effect, where-
upon she replied that he might not be dissatisfied
with what he saw, but with what he heard about her,
as I knew there were people in the country who took
pleasure in saying anything that came into their
heads about her. This she said with some signs of
shame, and I answered that we who were treating of
the Emperor's business were not so badly informed
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 103 — 4.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 61
that we did not know something of what was
necessary in deciding the affair, and her Majesty might
be sure that if there were anything which the Arch-
duke should not hear or learn, the idea of his coming
would not have been entertained by us, and this being
so, she could understand thereby the high esteem in
which your Majesty had always held her, and with
this I tried all I could to change the subject, signify-
ing that there was no need to speak of it. I saw she
was pleased, as she no doubt thought that if the
Archduke heard any of the idle tales they tell about
her (and they tell many) he might take advantage of
them to the detriment of her honour if the match were
broken off, and, although from this point of view I
was not sorry, as the fear may not be without
advantage to us, I thought well for all other reasons
to say that I grieved greatly that Her Majesty should
imagine such things, and should think that the Arch-
duke was capable of any other thought than that of
serving her in any case, whether she married him or
not, and that such considerations were not worthy of
her rank or that of the Archduke. The same remark
had been made by me before in conversation by Lady
Sidney, only I understood then that she was com-
plaining of the rivals her brother had. At any rate
the Queen now remains without a shadow of misgiving
on the point, and I am in great hope that it would
not have occurred to her unless she thought the
marriage would take place. . . .
Feria understood his Elizabeth better than did the Bishop
of Aquila, to whom he wrote from Malines on October 14 :
" I should be glad if that woman (Elizabeth) were quite to
lose her head and bring matters to a point, although when I
think what a baggage she is, and what a crew she is
surrounded by, there is probability enough of my wish
coming true. It seems the Emperor up to the present
refuses leave for his son to go, and to tell the truth, I cannot
persuade myself that he is wrong, nor do I believe that she
will either marry him, or refuse to marry him, while the
62 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
matter at issue is only his visit. Real necessity, however,
may make her open her eyes and marry, although the laxity
of the neighbouring princes may still allow her to deceive
herself."1 The truth was that Elizabeth realised the
necessity of remaining on the best terms with Philip and the
Emperor while the French peril existed in Scotland. It was
for the same reason that she gave fresh encouragement to the
Catholics, though Quadra this time was not to be deceived.
" The crucifixes and vestments that were burnt a month ago
publicly," he wrote to the Bishop of Arras on October 9,
" are now set up again in the royal chapel, as they soon will
be all over the kingdom, unless, which God forbid, there is
another change next week. They are doing it out of sheer
fear to pacify the Catholics, but as forced favours are no
sign of affection they often do more harm than good." a The
bishops-elect and other ardent reformers were horrified at
these reactionary signs, and Cecil, apparently, had to bear
the brunt of their displeasure, as well as of the Queen's
uncertain temper :
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE COUNT DE FERIA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
October 29, 1559.
. . . Bedford attacked Cecil the other day about
the crucifix, and the Queen also insulted him for some
other cause unknown to me. The heretic Bishops
are grumbling to her about their revenues, and are
beginning to preach against her ; in fact, if I were to
tell you all that is going on I should never finish.
The harvest is ripe if there were someone to come and
reap it, but I can see no hope of that except from
heaven. Your Lordship's opinion with regard to the
Queen's marriage would hold good in the case of a
woman of brains and conscience, with which this
one is not troubled, but, as it is, I think she either
will not marry, or, if she do, it will only be because
she has brought the Archduke here and likes him.
Her need cannot be greater than it is, nor does it suit
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 105.
a Ibid., p. 1 06.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 63
us that it should be so, as that would mean an appeal
to arms, which I believe His Majesty does not desire.
The best feature in the match with the Archduke is
that the French would retire from the business, and
the minds of Catholics and heretics would calm down,
as both would think he would favour their side. In
this respect all the heretics are quite content that he
should be a Catholic so long as he leaves them at
liberty, and I feel sure the Queen would do the same,
as she is certainly tired of the vapourings she gave way
to at first. It will be well for your Lordship to urge
the coming of the Archduke, as it is most important,
and the ambassador is sending one of his gentlemen
to the Emperor to press it. The freedom of these
blackguards annoys me beyond measure, as the Queen
says the most extraordinary things, and I always have
a retort for every word, which greatly offends but does
not frighten her, whereas I should like to follow an
exactly contrary course, first making much of her, and
then give her some gall syrup in the form of news of
leagues against her, which she fears most.
Here we are, ten or twelve ambassadors, competing
for her favour, and now they say the Duke of Holstein,
brother of the King of Denmark, is coming, and, as
they tell me, not a worse-looking man than the Arch-
duke. The King of Sweden's son, who is here, is fit
to kill the Emperor's ambassador, because he said his
father was only a clown who had stolen his kingdom
from the crown of Denmark, and the matter has
reached such a point that the Queen is careful they
should not meet in the palace to avoid their slashing
each other in her presence. To crown it all they are
making mischief with me about it.
The other day when Pickering was going into the
chapel, which is inside the Queen's apartments, the
Earl of Arundel came to the door and told him he
knew very well that that was a place for lords, and he
must go to the presence chamber. The other
answered that he knew that, and he also knew that
Arundel was an impudent, discourteous knave, which
64 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
the earl heard, and went out without answering a
word, leaving the other to enter. Pickering tells it in
public, and refrains from challenging him as he holds
him of small account, but it is only right that he
should refrain, as the other is very weak.
This was not the first time that Pickering had openly
picked a quarrel with the nobles of the Court, who now
scorned the airs and arrogance of this upstart favourite.
He was fully trusted neither by the Protestants nor the
Catholics, and gradually dropped out of the running. In
the previous month he had sent a challenge to the Earl of
Bedford for having spoken ill of him at a banquet, choosing,
of all unlikely men as his second, Lord Robert Dudley, but
Dudley, though his rival in the Queen's affections, was also
a hearty despiser of the extreme Protestants, to which
section Bedford belonged, and promised to deliver the
challenge. Bedford, however, who was something of a
physical freak, was, like Arundel, no fighting man, and
nothing apparently came of it. " I do not believe that
Bedford will ever quarrel with anybody," wrote Quadra, in
mentioning this incident to the Duke of Alba.
Meantime, Elizabeth, the arch flirt, was perfectly content
to have all her lovers at her feet at once, in spite of the
critical state of affairs in Scotland, and the increasing danger
of French influence there. " The woman's troubles are
growing apace," wrote the Spanish Ambassador exultantly to
the Duchess of Parma, " and her house will be in a blaze
before she knows it. ... A plot was made the other day
to murder Lord Robert," added Quadra a little later,
" and it is now common talk and threat. The plot was
headed by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, and all
the principal adherents of the Archduke. The Queen and
Robert are very uneasy about the Duke of Norfolk, as he
talks openly about her lightness and bad government.
People are ashamed of what is going on, and particularly the
Duke, as he is Lord Robert's enemy." 1 It was about this
time that the sinister rumours began to circulate to the effect
that Dudley meant to get rid of his wife in order to marry
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 107.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 65
the Queen. This was some ten months before the actual
tragedy which cost Amy Robsart her life. Quadra referred
to these rumours in the letter containing a long account of
two further unsatisfactory interviews with the Queen, in the
course of which she declared that whoever had assured him
that she meant to marry the Archduke when he came " had
done this with good intentions, but without any commission
from her." Not but that she might still do so if only he
would come, etc., etc. . . .
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, November 13, 1559.
The matter of the Queen's marriage being in the
position explained to your Majesty in recent letters, a
position which gave hopes of its being brought about,
I received certain news which forced me to try to get
a definite declaration from the Queen, whatever the
result might be, rather than the Archduke should be
deceived when he arrived here. What moved me to
ascertain her wishes was that I noticed Lord Robert
was slackening in our business, and favouring the
Swedish match, and that he had had words with his
sister because she was carrying the affair further than
he desired, but principally because I had heard from
a certain person who is accustomed to give me
veracious news that Lord Robert has sent to poison
his wife. Certainly all the Queen has done with us
and with the Swede, and will do with the rest in the
matter of her marriage, is only keeping Lord Robert's
enemies and the country engaged with words until
this wicked deed of killing his wife is consummated.
The same person told me some extraordinary things
about this intimacy, which I would never have
believed, only that now I find Lord Robert's enemies
in the Council making no secret of their evil opinion
of it. . . .
As I knew that the Duke of Norfolk was the chief
of Lord Robert's enemies, who are all the principal
E.M.S. F
66 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
people in the kingdom, and that he had said that if
Lord Robert did not abandon his present pretensions
and presumption he would not die in his bed, I got
the Ambassador to write to him, Norfolk, and also
wrote myself, and we sent a gentleman interpreter of
ours to him with Lord Sidney (sic), who is a kinsman
of Robert's, and a great adherent of the Duke, with
instructions to give him an account of all that had
happened in this business, and the point to which we
had brought it, in order that we might obtain his
countenance and advice. He replied very graciously,
and sent word that he should rejoice greatly if the
affair could be brought about, and was of opinion that
the Archduke should come publicly and ostentatiously,
in which case he (Norfolk) would stake his right arm
that he would give us the votes of all the biggest and
best in the land. He himself would come here to be
present at the reception of the Archduke, to whom he
wished to speak before he entered London, and asked
us to endeavour to get him appointed by the Queen
to go to meet him. I think this hatred of Lord
Robert will continue, as the Duke and the rest of
them cannot put up with his being King. I am of
opinion if the Archduke comes and makes the
acquaintance and obtains the goodwill of these
people, even if this marriage — of which I have now
no hope except by force — should fall through, and
any disaster were to befall the Queen, such as may
be feared from her bad government, the Archduke
might be summoned to marry Lady Catherine [Grey],
to whom the kingdom falls if this woman dies. If
the Archduke sees her (Catherine) he should so bear
himself that she should understand this design,
which in my opinion may be beneficial and even
necessary. . . .
Postscript: The son of the King of Sweden went
to-day to visit the Queen, and being tired of waiting
in an antechamber he went away to his house without
saying a word to anybody. I think he is un-
deceived now, after scattering large sums of money
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 67
amongst these people and showing himself oft' to the
Queen.1
The relations between Dudley and the Duke of Norfolk
grew from bad to worse. One day, wrote Quadra, the Duke
" spoke out so plainly to Lord Robert that they separated
abruptly, and Robert told him he was neither a good
Englishman nor a loyal subject who advised the Queen to
marry a foreigner. Things are very strained between them,
and the Duke has gone home in dudgeon." 2 As for Elizabeth,
Quadra in wrath and despair was at last forced to admit that
she was altogether beyond him. " Your lordship," he wrote
towards the end of the year to the Count de Feria, " will see
what a pretty business it is to have to treat with this woman,
whp, I think, must have a hundred thousand devils in her
body, notwithstanding that she is for ever telling me she
yearns to be a nun, and to pass her time in a Cell praying. I
have heard great things of a sort that cannot be written
about, and you will understand what they must be by that." 8
The indiscretions of the Queen and her favourite Dudley had
now become a subject of such general remark as to call forth
a solemn warning from Sir Thomas Chaloner, whose negotia-
tions at the Imperial Court led him strongly to favour the
acceptance of the Archduke Charles :
SIR THOMAS CHALONER TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Haynes: " Burghley State Papers."]
I assure you, sir, these folks are broad-mouthed
where I spake of one too much in favour, as they
esteem ; I think ye guess whom they named ; if ye do
not, I will upon my next letters write further. To
tell you what I conceive — as I count the slander most
false, so a young princess cannot be too wary what
countenance or familiar demonstration she maketh,
more to one than another. I judge no man's service
1 This son of the King of Sweden was the young Duke of Finland,
who had been sent over on a new embassy to further the suit
of his brother Eric, referred to on p. 4. Apparently he determined
to try for Elizabeth's hand himself, but with no better success than
his brother.
a Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 117.
8 Ibid., p. 119.
F 2,
68 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
in the realm worth the entertainment with such a tale
of obloquy, or occasion of speech to such men as of
evil will are ready to find faults. This delay of ripe
time for marriage, besides the loss of the realm (for
without posterity of her highness what hope is left
unto us ?) ministereth matter to these leud tongues to
descant upon, and breedeth contempt. I would I had
but one hour's talk with you. Think if I trusted not
your good nature, I would not write thus much ;
which nevertheless I humbly pray you to reserve as
written to yourself.
Consider how ye deal now in the emperor's matter :
much dependeth on it. Here they hang in expecta-
tion as men desirous it should go forward, but yet
they have small hope : In mine opinion (be it said to
you only) the affinity is great and honourable : the
amity necessary to stop and cool many enterprises.
Ye need not fear his greatness should overrule you ;
he is not a Philip, but better for us than a Philip.
Let the time work for Scotland as God will, for sure
the French, I believe, shall never long enjoy them :
and when we be stronger and more ready, we may
proceed with that, that is yet unripe. The time itself
will work, when our great neighbours fall out next.
In the mean time settle we things begun ; and let us
arm and fortify our frontiers.
Affairs in Scotland had moved swiftly since Arran crossed
the border after his inspiring interviews with Elizabeth.
We must hark back a few weeks to pick up the threads of
this part of our story. On his arrival Arran had speedily
won over to the reformers' camp his weak and wavering
father, the Duke of Chatelherault. Encouraged by this and
the hope of Elizabeth's help, the Lords of the Congrega-
tion sent a letter to the Queen Regent, which practically
amounted to an ultimatum, demanding that the fortifications
which her French troops were building at Leith — where
they had lately landed a thousand strong — should be dis-
continued, and that all foreigners, including the garrison,
should be dismissed. Mary of Guise, however, was the last
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 69
woman in the world to be brow-beaten in this fashion. . In
spite of the dropsical disease which kept her to her sick
chamber in the newly raised fortifications, she sent for her
Lion Herald King-at-Arms, and returned a verbal reply to
her rebellious nobles, indicating at length her attitude, and
declining to accede to any of their demands. She bade the
Lord Lion in conclusion to " require the Duke of Chatel-
herault and the other nobles to separate themselves from the
insurgents, and leave Edinburgh forthwith, under penalty of
being proclaimed traitors." Then, with haughty brevity
— far more effective than any outburst of passion — she wrote
the following letter to the lords who, by the signing of
the reformers' covenant of 1557, had constituted them-
selves heads of the Scottish Church — the " Congregation of
the Lord" — just as Elizabeth had been nominated "only
Supreme Governor " of the Church in England :
THE QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND TO THE LORDS
OF THE CONGREGATION.
[Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of Scotland."]
LEITH, October 21, 1559.
After commendations, we have received your letter
from Edinburgh the igth of this instant, which
appeareth to us rather to have come from a Prince
to his subjects, than from subjects to them that have
authority — whereof we have presently directed unto
you this bearer, Lion Herald King-of-Arms, suffi-
ciently instructed with our mind, to whom ye shall
give credence.
MARY R.
Thereupon the rebellious lords, realising that there was
no time to be lost, passed a resolution formally suspending
Mary from all authority as Regent of the realm. This
they paradoxically proclaimed from the market cross at
Edinburgh in the name of their sovereign lord and lady,
the Queen Regent's own daughter and son-in-law, Mary
Stuart and Francis II. Knox himself has left a letter
exactly explaining the situation at this date :
70 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
JOHN KNOX TO MR. RAYLTON.i
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."]
EDINBURGH, October 23, 1559.
. . . The alteration that be here is this — the Queen
Regent, with public consent of the Lords and Barons
assembled, is deprived of all authority and regiment
[rule] among us. She, Frenchmen, and assistants
are by open proclamation declared and denounced
enemies and traitors to this commonwealth, for that
being thrice required and charged to desist from the
fortification of Leith, she and they do obstinately
proceed in their wicked enterprise. This was done
this Monday before noon. There shall be appointed
to occupy the authority a great council, the president
and chief head whereof shall be my Lord Duke
[Chatelherault]. The authority of the French King
and Queen is yet received, and will be in works till
they deny our most just requests which you shall,
God willing, shortly hereafter understand, together
with our whole proceedings from the beginning of
this matter, which we are to set forth in manner
of history.
The battle is begun sharp enough ; God give the
issue to His glory and our comfort ! She hath yet
small advantage, as for the death of two of our
soldiers, and for the hurting of three gentlemen, she
hath lost two captains and hath for wounded many
of her chief soldiers, to the number of twenty upon
a day.
They brag, and the Queen especially, that ye will
leave us in the midst of the trouble, and this she
hath of her last post which came by you. My battle
to this day hath been very bitter, but if ye frustrate
my expectation and the promise that I have made in
your name, I regard not how few my dolorous days
shall be. What God hath wrought by me in this
1 A note in the Sadler Papers states that " Raylton seems to have
been a sort of private secretary or decipherer." Wright, in
reprinting the letter, is more inclined to think that Raylton was a
feigned name for somebody in a more conspicuous position.
[Photo, Emery Walker
JOHN KNOX
After the portrait in the National Portrait Gallery
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 71
matter I will not now write. But this I may say,
that such offers are refused that more do judge us
fools, than do praise our constancy. We are deter-
mined to essay the uttermost, but first we must have
three thousand more soldiers, for if we assault and
be repulsed, then shall our enterprise be in great
hazard. And our commons are not able to abide
together. Give advertisement therefore to such as
befriend us, that without delay our support be sent,
as well by money as by men.
If your eyes be single, ye may not let to succour
our present necessity, whatsoever danger appear
thereof to ensue. I must further require you to be
a suitor to all such as you know to be unfeigned
favourers, and especially to our brethren of London,
to have a respect to our necessities.
The French ships keep the narrow waters here,
which is to us a great annoyance, and unto them a
great relief. Provision would be had betimes, which
we cannot make by reason that all our ships are
absent, and as we fear stayed, so many as be in
France. Make ye advertisement as ye think good,
for I cannot write to any especial for lack of oppor-
tunity ; for in twenty-four hours I have not four or
five to natural rest and ease of this wicked carcass.
Remember my last request for my mother, and say
to Mr. George that I have need of a good and an
assured horse, for great watch is laid for my appre-
hension, and large money promised to any that shall
kill me ; and yet would I hazard to come unto you,
if I were assured that I might be permitted to open
my mouth, to call again to Christ Jesus those
unthankful children, who, alack ! have appeared
utterly to have forgotten His loving mercies, which
sometimes I supposed they had embraced. And this
part of my care now poured in your bosom, I cease
further to trouble you, being troubled myself in body
and in spirit for the troubles that be present and
appear to grow. God give end to His glory and to
our comfort. This 23rd of October, 1559, at mid-
72 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
night. Many things I have to write, which now
time suffereth not, but after if ye make haste with
this message, ye shall understand more. ... I
write with sleeping eyes.
Mary of Guise's devoted garrison of Frenchmen at Leith,
scorning the summons to surrender, the Lords of the
Congregation prepared to take the town by storm, but
discovered both the fortifications and the men defending
them considerably stouter than they anticipated. Though
the main body of the long-delayed reinforcements from
France had not yet arrived, the advanced guard of a
thousand veterans, which had landed at Leith under D'Oyssel,
proved infinitely better soldiers than men who were more
at home at border raids than at a serious siege against
disciplined troops. Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir James Croft,
who kept Cecil fully posted as to the course of events, saw
plainly that the Scotsmen had no easy task before them.
" Now the affray is begun, and being thus far entered in
blood on both parts," they wrote to the anxious secretary
on October 24, " we think it cannot soon be staunched . . .
whether they will assault the town of Leith or not we cannot
tell, but you know the Scots will climb no walls." 1 The
Lords of the Congregation now turned more anxiously than
ever to Elizabeth, hoping for the relief without which the
Queen's Commissioners clearly saw they had little likelihood
of success.
SIR RALPH SADLER AND SIR JAMES CROFT TO
SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."]
BERWICK, October 27, 1559.
Yesternight we received letters in cipher from
Randolph, with others from the Earl of Arran, alias
Beaufort,2 to the Queen's Majesty, to you and to us,
and also certain other writings which we send you
here enclosed, praying you that upon consideration
of the same, we may be directed from thence with
speed, how we shall answer their desires in such sort
1 Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times," 1838.
a The feigned name which was given to the Earl in his passport.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 73
as to your wisdoms there shall be thought convenient,
for now you may see great likelihood what this matter
will grow unto.
We have in the mean season thought good to put
them in some hope of such relief as with honour and
secrecy may be ministered unto them, and also have
given them such advice as you shall perceive by the
copy of our letters presently written in cipher to
Randolph, which you shall receive herewith. But
surely we think if they be not relieved and supported
by the Queen's Majesty, their poverty being such as
they allege, they must of force desist and leave off
their enterprise to their own confusion. And if by
her Highness's aid they may prosper and achieve
the same, yet in the end, as far as we can see, her
Highness must either manifest herself on that side,
or else they shall not be able to strive and wrestle
with the power of France. Wherein we be bold to
say our poor minds as men which from the bottom
of our hearts do wish and desire the establishment
of this island in perpetual unity and concord, the
like opportunity whereof, that is now offered, we
think we shall not live to see, if this be pretermitted,
the consideration whereof we refer to the wisdom
and deep judgment of those to whom it chiefly
appertaineth, which can more deeply weigh it, and
discern and see further in the same than our poor
wits can reach. So we end, committing you to God,
who directeth all to His pleasure.
Your assured poor friends,
R. SADLER,
JAMES CROFT.
All the early honours of war rested with the seasoned
French troops, who repulsed the first assault with ease,
and shortly afterwards raided Edinburgh itself during a
daring sortie one morning while part of the Scottish force
was vainly searching for the Earl of Bothwell, who had just
robbed the Laird of Ormiston of funds intended for the
besiegers. Bothwell was at this date only some twenty-
74 ELIZABETH A^ID MARY STUART
three years old, and though nominally Protestant in his
religion, now became a staunch supporter of the Queen
Regent. His capture of the money was doubly serious
because it had been secretly sent "in the following circum-
stances by the English commissioners to meet the desperate
needs of the Scottish rebels :
SIR RALPH SADLER AND SIR JAMES CROFT TO
SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."}
BERWICK, October 31, 1559.
Yesternight arrived here the Laird of Ormiston,
with these letters, which we send you here enclosed.
He was specially dispatched hither for money, and
declared unto us that unless they might be presently
helped and relieved with the same, they could not
keep their power any longer together, but that their
soldiers, which they had in wages, were, ready to
depart from them, for lack of payment, whereupon
because we thought it not good utterly to discourage
them, we have presumed to send them one thousand
pounds, which we declared unto him, we shifted for
of our own money, and such as we could borrow of
our friends for the time, and so we have now written
unto Randolph, requiring him to declare the same
to such of the lords there as he thinketh good, and
to adve/tise them that we be in good hope to send
them more very shortly, praying them to keep it
secret, and to make as few privy to it as is possible,
whereof likewise we required the said Ormiston—
to whom also we have given two hundred crowns
for his own relief, which he took in very thankful
part, and so we returned him this day with speed to
Edinburgh with good words, and good hope of more
relief as soon as may be. Furthermore, like as we
wrote unto you that we would send this bearer,
Mr. Drury, to Edinburgh, to the intent we might
the better understand by him of their doings there,
so being directed from me, Sir James Croft, to the
Prior of St. Andrews, he hath been there among
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 75
them since Thursday last, and is now returned unto
us in the company of the said Laird of Ormiston.
He hath viewed the town of Leith very near, within
the shot of the arquebuse, and what he judgeth of
the same, and all the rest that he hath seen and
heard there he can better and more at length declare
unto you than we can write. He is honest, wise,
and secret, and therefore we have thought good to
dispatch him presently herewith, praying you to
credit him in that he shall declare unto you on our
behalf.
What will be the" end of this matter we cannot
tell, but surely without the Queen's Majesty's aid,
either by taking open and plain part with them, or
else secretly to be at charges with them, as her
Highness hath been for a time, we see not, their
poverty being such as it is, as this said bearer can
tell, that they shall be able of themselves to keep
any power long together, but of force must be fain
to stay and depart, to their no little danger, and to
the utter overthrow of the whole intended purpose.
And what may ensue thereof we refer to be con-
sidered there by such as can more deeply weigh-
and judge of the ^ame than we can, and for our
parts shall be ready to do as we shall be commanded.
And thus we commit you to the tuition of Almighty
God.
Your assured poor friends,
R. SADLER,
JAMES CROFT.
The Laird of Ormiston, who had an escort of seven men,
was John Cockburn, a zealous reformer, against whom
b Bothwell was nursing a private feud. The " glorious, rash,
and hazardous young man," as Throckmorton once called
him, was only too ready to carry out the Queen Regent's
"instructions to seize him on his return to Edinburgh from
Berwick. Lying in wait for the Laird near Dumpenter Law
with twenty-four men, he succeeded in intercepting the
convoy, and, cutting Ormiston down with a cut across the
76
face, carried him off with the booty to his castle at Crichton.
In his letter of November 3, in which he announces this
mishap to Cecil, Randolph adds :
Immediately after word came to us that Ormiston
was hurt, and the money lost, the Earl of Arran and
the Lord James Stuart went with two hundred
horsemen and one hundred footmen, and two pieces
of artillery, to the Lord Bothwell's house, trusting
to have found him there ; howbeit they came too
late, only by a quarter of an hour. They have,
notwithstanding, taken his house ; and unless he
render the money out of hand, this day his house
will be set afire, and his goods reserved, in recom-
pense of the money, and he to be taken as an enemy
to the whole Lords of the Congregation.1
Bothwell's reply was to send Arran a challenge to single
combat " as you please on horse or foot, unto the death,"
before Frenchmen and Scotsmen. Arran replied that he
would meet him only " whensoever you may recover the
name of an honest man, which by your cowardly deed you
have lost," and in no case before Frenchmen, " whom you
rank with Scots, for there is no Frenchman in this realm
with whose judgment I will have to do." Bothwell's capture
not only heartened the Queen Regent in her besieged strong-
hold ; it also furnished damning- evidence of English o^acial
help in the rebellion. '\Xell the Queen what we have dis-
covered," wrote J)'Oyssel to Noailles in London, " although
I believe she will disavow it ; but if you look her straight in
the face she can hardly help blushing whatever assurance
she may possess."-2 Elizabeth, of course', was ready enough
with her denials, especially in view of Mary of Guise's
strengthened position, and the possibility of the arrival of
the main French army, 20,000 strong, under the command
of her youngest brother Rene", the Marquis d'Elboeuf. The
Lords of the Congregation, wrote Sadler and Croft to
Randolph, "must say that the money was Ormiston's, or
theirs, or colour the matter otherwise." 8 Elizabeth herself,
1 Sadler Papers.
3 Teulet : "Papers d'fitat.," p. 379.
8 Scottish Calendar, I., p. 259.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 77
however, had not heard of this regrettable incident when the
French Ambassador roused her ire during the tournament
of November 3, at which her favourite Dudley, and Lord
Hunsdon, held the lists against all comers :
M. DE NOAILLES TO FRANCIS II.
[Teulet: " Papifrrs cTfctat relatifs d Vhistoire d'£cosse."~\
LONDON, November 9, 1559.
Sire,
Being aware that this Queen was beginning to be
somewhat alarmed at the preparations which are
being made in Normandy to send reinforcements to
Scotland, it seemed to me it was time that I, on
behalf of your Majesty, should make known to her
all that you had been pleased to command me in
your last instructions. On this occasion having
asked for an audience on the 3rd of this month, she
granted it to me on the 5th, which was last Sunday
afternoon — thus giving me an opportunity to see the
tournament which was then held in her presence by my
Lords Robert [Dudley] and Hunsdon, the champions
who held the lists against all comers. Eighteen
assailants presented themselves, and some of them
made a brave show. The said Lady, who showed
much favour to the two champions, had with her, in
the gallery from which she watched the tournament,
the Duke of Finland and the Emperor's ambassador,
besides -your hostages and myself, together with a
number of lords and ladies of the court. On my
arrival she demanded if I had any news from France,
complaining that she had learned nothing, not even
of her ambassador, whom she had commanded to
come for seven or eight days past, and did not know
what could be keeping him. I answered that I had
received letters from your Majesty, written ten or
twelve days ago, in which I was directed to tell her
that, in view of the obstinacy and malice with which
the Scots continued their attacks, you were resolved
to send help to the Queen Regent in order that she
might resist them. On which the said Lady said to
78 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
me rather abruptly that it was very reasonable that
this provision should be made, but it must not be
thought very strange if she on her side were also to
arm herself. She heard, she said, that great prepara-
tions of men and ships were being made in Normandy,
and that there did not seem to be any need for so
much assistance, for she knew that there were in
Scotland almost as many French as Scots in arms,
there being scarcely more than six or seven thousand
of the said Scots altogether. I replied that if they
had been rightly reckoned they would be found to be
a hundred of the rebels against one, and these could
drive out the French. At which the tilting began,
and the said Lady, not wishing to lose the pleasure
of watching, said to me that we would speak of
these matters later when we were more at leisure.
When the jousts were concluded she dismissed
with some gracious words both the Duke of Finland
and the Imperial Ambassador, so that she might
withdraw and talk with me alone. Having first
excused herself for not having given me an audience
sooner because she had been so much occupied, we
resumed our conversation where we had left it. I
continued to lay before her your Majesty's commands
regarding the said preparation, pointing out that
you knew of so few faithful servants in Scotland that
it was necessary to send more Frenchmen there, and
that that ungrateful nation would not even have
allowed the Queen Regent to remain in Leith, had
it not been strengthened by earthworks, and by the
presence of a few French troops. Therefore she_
[Elizabeth] could judge for herself how expedient it
was that all diligence should be used in setting
matters right.
She answered that it was also her custom, ancTthat
of her kingdom, to arm when her neighbours armed.
All her coasts were being watched, she declared, in
order to guard against any attack, repeating again
what she had heard, that matters were not at such a
point that it was necessary for France to send so
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 79
many men and ships to Scotland and that there were
many other places loyal to the Queen Regent besides
Leith, such as Dunbar, and Edinburgh Castle. I
tried to reply, Sire, very plainly on thes.e points,
explaining, in the first place, that she was thus doing
great injury to the peace and friendship between your
Majesties, and that she could see that you were
sufficiently harassed now in your own country with-
out wishing to attack any other. Also that I
could, on my part, swear to her, in all truth and
conscience, and call God to witness, that in all the
negotiations in which it had pleased you to command
me, I was only aware that you had no greater wish
than truly and soundly to observe the said friendship
and treaties of peace. ... At last the said Lady
admitted that your arming on this occasion was
reasonable and necessary, instructing me to thank
you greatly for the information you had been pleased
to give her, and to beg that you would not think it in
any way strange if she kept her ships ready and her
coasts garrisoned, as is the custom in her kingdom.
She maintained that it would not in any way disturb
on her part the firm peace and friendship which she
had sworn to God and to your Majesty. ... In this
manner, Sire, it being already late, the audience
came to an end.
It was an embarrassing position for Elizabeth, and
extremely difficult to say exactly what her real intentions
were at this period. As Froude says, deliberately, or in spite
of herself, she was doing what she was compelled to deny, and
at the same time, holding out hopes which, if she could help
it, she never meant to fulfil. Probat>ly the real explanation
was that she detested Knox as much as she feared a French
attack through Scotland, and had a deep-rooted and not
unreasonable objection to all rebels against royal authority.
She had fondly hoped that the Scots would have ousted the
Frenchmen without any question of open assistance on her
side. " Had they not been unskilled in sieges and the art of
war," wrote Dr. Jewel to Peter Martyr on December i,
" they would have effected something? long before this time.
8o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Slight skirmishes took place on both sides up to the sixth of
November, after which the Scots retired into winter quarters ;
whereupon a rumour was spread abroad by the Queen's party
that the Scots had run away with their spirits broken. But
they, with their leaders, still maintain their ground, and hold
councils, and increase their numbers, and levy money, and
have troops in readiness, should there be any occasion for
their services." l In point of fact, the Lords of the Congre-
gation had stored their artillery in Edinburgh Castle on the
bond of the neutral Lord Erskine to re-deliver it, and retired
to Linlithgow at midnight on the sixth, vowing that they
would coin their plate to maintain the Word of God and
the weal of Scotland. The Queen Regent re-occupied the
capital the next morning, most of the inhabitants " fleeing
with bag and baggage, and putting their best stuff in the
castle for safety." 2 Elizabeth still declined openly to support
the Scottish cause. The English council was hopelessly
divided on the subject, though her far-seeing Secretary saw
that armed intervention was the only way to safety. Elizabeth
hesitated so long to take the plunge that in a fit of despair
Cecil at length sent her the following undated letter declining
to act further in the matter :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."]
It may please your most Excellent Majesty,
With a sorrowful heart and watery eyes, I your
poor servant and most loyal subject, an unworthy
Secretary, beseech your Majesty to pardon this my
lowly suit, that considering the proceeding in this
matter for removing of the French out of Scotland
doth not content your Majesty, and that I cannot
with my conscience give any contrary advice, I may,
with your Majesty's favour and clemency, be spared
to intermeddle therein. And this I am forced to do
of necessity, for I will never be a minister in any your
Majesty's service, whereunto your own mind shall
not be agreeable, for thereunto I am sworn, to be a
1 Zurich Letters. First Series.
9 Scottish Calendar, II., p. 262.
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 81
minister of your Majesty's determinations and not
of mine own, or of others, though they be never so
many. And on the other part, to serve your Majesty
in anything that myself cannot allow, must needs be
an unprofitable service, and so untoward, as therein I
would be loth your Majesty should be deceived. And
as for any other service, though it were in your
Majesty's kitchen or garden, from the bottom of my
heart I am ready without respect of estimation,
wealth, or ease, to do your Majesty's commandment
to my life's end. Whereof I wish with all my poor
sorrowful heart, that your Majesty would make some
proof, for this I do affirm, that I have not had since
your Majesty's reign, any one day's joy but in your
Majesty's honour and weal.
Meantime the elements which were to turn the scales in
England's favour on a more momentous occasion later in
her reign now conspired with Cecil to make Elizabeth change
her mind. Elbceuf, who had been waiting at Calais for a
favourable opportunity to convey his troops to Scotland
without encountering the English fleet, succeeded only in
meeting disaster in a gale, which wrecked four of his ships
and drowned between one and two thousand troops off the
coast of Holland. A second army dispatched for the same
purpose under Martigues, was wrecked on the Danish coast.
These, and other reassuring news from France, decided
Elizabeth at last openly to throw in her lot with the rebels
of Scotland and remove the French peril thence once and
for all. " You will see by my letters to his Majesty," wrote
Quadra to the Duke of Alba, " that what we have feared so
long has at last come to pass. It is the Queen's act, and I
pray God that Christendom may not again be set aflame by
these corrupt and evil appetites."1 The Queen had other
weighty matters to deal with in this closing month of the
year, in addition to the Scottish crisis, and the ceaseless
negotiations concerning the marriage which she never
intended to contract. The Catholic bishops having, with one
exception, declined to swear the new oath, they were deprived
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.
E.M.S. G
82 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
of their sees during the summer and autumn. Five were
now bold enough to send Elizabeth a letter which, had it
been addressed by Protestants to Mary during the last reign,
would probably have cost the writers their lives :
THE DEPRIVED BISHOPS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Strype's "Annals of the Reformation."]
December 4, 1559.
Most Royal Queen,
We entreat your gracious Majesty to listen unto us
of the Catholic clergy within your realm, as well as
unto others, lest that your gracious Majesty and
subjects be led astray through the inventions of those
evil counsellors who are persuading your ladyship to
embrace schisms and heresies in lieu of the ancient
Catholic faith, which hath been long since planted
within this realm by the motherly care of the Church
of Rome — which your ancestors duly and reverently
observed and confessed, until by heretical and
schismatical advisers your father was withdrawn ;
and after him your brother Prince Edward. After his
decease, your virtuous sister Queen Mary of happy
memory succeeded, who being troubled in conscience
with what her father's and brother's advisers had
caused them to do, most piously restored the Catholic
faith by establishing the same again in this realm :
as also by extinguishing the schisms and heresies
which at that time began to flame over her territories.
For which God poured out His wrath upon most of
the malefactors, and misleaders of the nation.
We further entreat your Ladyship to consider the
supremacy of the Church of Rome. And histories yet
make mention that Athanasius was expelled by her
and her council in Liberius's time ; the Emperor also
speaking against him for withstanding the head of
the church.
These ancient things we lay before your Majesty,
hoping God will turn your heart, and, in fine, make
your Majesty's evil advisers ashamed, and to repent
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 83
their heresies. God preseve your Majesty. Which
be the prayers of
NICOLAS HETHE, JAMES TURBERVILLE,
EDMOND BONNER, DAVID POLE.
GILBERT BOURNE,
Elizabeth was not so angry with the Marian bishops on
reading this letter as were several of her Council, " who moved
her" says Strype, " to punish them for their insolency";
but she replied : " Let us not follow our sister's example,
but rather show that our reformation tendeth to peace, and
not to cruelty"; and she returned the bishops this answer
before rising from the council :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DEPRIVED BISHOPS.
[Strype's "Annals of the Reformation."]
GREENWICH, December 6, 1559.
E. R. Sirs,
As to your entreaty, for us to listen to you, we waive
it : yet do return you this our answer. Our realm
and subjects have been long wanderers, walking
astray, while they were under the tuition of Romish
pastors, who advised them to own a wolf for their
head, (in lieu of a careful shepherd,) whose inventions,
heresies, and schisms be so numerous that the flock
of Christ hath fed on poisonous shrubs for want of
wholesome pastures. And whereas you hit us and our
subjects in the teeth, that the Romish Church first
planted the Catholic faith within our realms, the
records and chronicles of our realms testify the con-
trary ; and your own Romish idolatry maketh you
liars : witness the ancient monument of Gildas, unto
which both foreign and domestic have gone in pilgrim-
age there to offer. This author testified! Joseph of
Arimathea to be the first preacher of the Word of God
within our realms. Long after that, when Augustine
came from Rome, this our realm had bishops and
priests therein, as is well known to the wise and
learned of our realm by woeful experience, how your
church entered therein by blood — they being martyrs
G 2
84 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
for Christ, and put to death, because they denied
Rome's usurped authority.
As for our father being withdrawn from the supremacy
of Rome by schismatical and heretical counsels and
advisers ; who, we pray, advised him more, or flattered
him, than you, good Mr. Hethe, when you were
Bishop of Rochester ? And than you, Mr. Bonner,
when you were archdeacon ? And you, Mr. Turber-
ville ? Nay further, who was more an adviser of our
father than your great Stephen Gardiner, when he
lived ? Are not ye, then, those schismatics and
heretics ? If so, suspend your evil censures. Recol-
lect, was it our sister's conscience made her so averse
to our father's and brother's actions as to undo what
they had perfected ? Or was it not you, or such-like
advisers, that dissuaded her, and stirred her up against
us and other of the subjects ?
And whereas you would frighten us, by telling how
emperors, kings, and princes have owned the Bishop
of Rome's authority, it was contrary in the beginning.
For our Saviour Christ paid His tribute unto Caesar,
as the chief superior ; which shows your Romish
supremacy is usurped. As touching the excommuni-
cation of St. Athanasius by Liberius and that council,
and how the Emperor consented thereunto ; consider
the heresies that at that time had crept into the
Church of Rome, and how courageously Athanasius
withstood them, and how he got the victory. Do ye
not acknowledge his creed to this day ? Dare any of
you say — " he is a schismatic ? " Surely ye be not so
audacious ! Therefore as ye acknowledge his creed,
it shows he was no schismatic. If Athanasius with-
stood Rome for her then heresies, then others may
safely separate themselves from your church and not
be schismatics. We give you warning, that for the
future we hear no more of this kind, lest you provoke
us to execute those penalties enacted for the punish-
ing of our resisters : which out of our clemency we
have forborne.
Although no punishment was meted out to these bishops at
PLOTS AND SCANDALS 85
the time — save the mortification of being succeeded by
" heretics " — most of them were placed under restraint in the
following year. Bonner, who, as Bishop of London in Mary's
reign, had earned his unenviable reputation in that Protestant
stronghold for his remorseless share in the Smithfield burn-
ings, was carried to the Marshalsea, while Hethe, late Arch-
bishop of York, Bourne, late Bishop of Bath and Wells, and
Turberville, late Bishop of Exeter, were all imprisoned in the
Tower. None of the deprived bishops, however, was ever sent
to the block, and not for years was anyone in Elizabeth's reign
executed for religion alone. Less than a fortnight after she
had written the foregoing letter — on December 21, 1559, to
be exact — London witnessed the consecration of Bonner's
successor, Edmund Grindal, by the new Archbishop of
Canterbury, Matthew Parker, whose own consecration had
taken place three days previously. Thus this eventful year
closed with the Queen fully committed to the religious com-
promise now known as the Elizabethan Settlement, as well
as — though not yet so openly — to armed intervention on
behalf of Scotland's rebels.
CHAPTER III
THE SIEGE OF LEITH
Elizabeth's Intervention in Scotland — Mary of Guise Recovers her
Capital — A Forged Letter — Elizabeth's Terms — The " disordered
Irishry" — Quadra's fears — Dudley "ruining the country "-
The Treaty of Berwick — How Whiter arrived in the Firth of
Forth — French Designs against England — Elizabeth's Proclama-
tion— The Tumult of Amboise — Philip's Need of Money —
Glajon's Mission — His Treachery — The French Ambassador's
Protest — Elizabeth's Angry Retort — The Siege of Leith — Mary
of Guise Takes Refuge in Edinburgh Castle — Her Heroism —
Mary Stuart's Grief — The Disastrous Assault upon Leith,
May 7th, 1560 — Elizabeth Determined to Wipe out the
Disgrace — Death of the Queen Regent of Scotland — Treaty of
Edinburgh — Mary Stuart and Francis II. repudiate it.
IN throwing down the gauntlet to France so soon after her
accession Elizabeth was again following in her father's foot-
steps, for it was in the early years of his reign that Henry for
the first time fought England's ancient enemy, at that time
allied to Scotland against the Holy League. Then England
was left in the lurch by her allies, Ferdinand and Maximilian.
Now she dared to stand alone — to the profound anxiety of
Philip II. , who was fearful of the consequences. " One of
the chief personages of this Court, who is most intimate with
his Majesty," wrote the Venetian Ambassador at Toledo in
January, "when discussing the subject with me, said he
strongly suspected that it will at length cause the renewal of
the war between his Majesty and France, as, for the interests
of the States of Flanders, King Philip could by no means
tolerate the occupation of England by the French." l Eliza-
beth, however, still strove to convince the world in general
and Francis II. in particular that she had no desire to break
the peace with France ; that her naval and military prepara-
tions were purely defensive, and that she had no intention of
carrying them farther than Scotland. " In the absence of
1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 149.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 87
their Sovereign Queen," Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was
instructed to say to "our good brother the French King,"
on his return to Paris at the beginning of 1560, "we would
take the protection of that realm into our hands, to this only
end, that it be not conquered. That hitherto we have for-
borne to intermeddle, and so would gladly continue, without
any regard to their doings, were it not that upon considera-
tion of the injurious attempts, as have been already shown in
France divers ways against us, and the hostility prepared
thereupon, we find no small danger ensuing to our realm if
the realm of Scotland should be conquered."1
Meantime Mary of Guise was hoping against hope for
the arrival of her brother, the Marquis d'Elbceuf, who was
expected not only with an army to relieve her and punish her
adversaries, but also with the Royal Commission from her
daughter and son-in-law appointing him Regent in her stead,
in order that she might return to her beloved France, " to
obtain rest and relaxation for awhile from the burden and
vexation she has endured." a This sorely-needed relief, how-
ever, she was never destined to enjoy, though her health
revived surprisingly after her recovery of Edinburgh. The
French troops strengthened her position by occupying Stir-
ling, and she did her best to undermine the position of the Duke
of Chatelherault by a forged letter to Francis II., offering in
humiliating terms to make his complete surrender. The
letter is printed as genuine by Miss Strickland :
THE DUKE OF CHATELHERAULT TO FRANCIS II.
[Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of Scotland."]
GLASGOW, January 25, 1560.
Sire,
The pledge which it has pleased the Queen Regent
to give me of your goodness and clemency, has
emboldened me to write this very humble entreaty
for you to receive me and mine into your grace, and
that you will forget and forgive all past offences,
especially some matters which I make my particular
request to you. I herewith place my blanc scelle
1 Hatfield MSS., Part I., p. 167.
* Labanoff, Second Supplement, Vol. VII., pp, 282—3.
88 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
[carte blanche, with his seal attached] in your hands,
for an assurance of my fidelity to you and the Queen
my sovereign, and supplicate you to accept the same ;
and after I have your reply, if you require me to do
so, I will send my children to France.
The object of this forged letter was not only to discredit
the Duke, but also to warn Elizabeth as to the amount of
faith which she could place in the rebels whom she was pro-
posing to help. So far as the Duke was concerned, the ruse
for a time succeeded. The letter was shown to Elizabeth by
the French Ambassador, and it was long before anyone would
believe the Duke when he denied the authenticity of the
document. His weakness as Regent before abdicating in
favour of the Queen Dowager in 1554 left people too prone
to accept the letter as genuine. The truth was only dis-
covered through a later letter from the Queen Regent,
intercepted on its way to the Cardinal of Lorraine, in which
she acknowledged the trick, and complained that the French
Ambassador had not made the most of it.1 Elizabeth, how-
ever, was now firmly committed to her course. The Duke of
Norfolk had already been despatched to the Border, where
an army was to take the field under Lord Grey, Sir Ralph
Sadler being instructed to assist in the council. William
Winter, Master of the Ordnance, was sent to the Firth of
Forth with the fleet of fourteen ships which proved the chief
deciding factor in the situation, though delayed by the storms
which sent so many of the French ships to destruction.
His orders were to provoke a quarrel if he did not find
one ; to allow no French vessel whatever to enter the Firth ;
and if challenged to declare that he did all this on his own
responsibility. He might be hanged as a pirate, but on no
account was he to incrimina'te Elizabeth. The rebel leaders,
well posted in his dispatch, looked anxiously for his coming
every day. The great hope of the Scottish lords, as Norfolk
wrote to the Council on January 20, " lies in the arrival of
our ships, the sight of which in the Forth would double their
courage, and cause a great number to rise and take part with
tb?m who now sit still." a They were suspicious of the Eng-
1 Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. II., p. 481.
2 Hatfield MSS., Part I., pp. 171—2.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 89
lish army, though badly needing its help. " I think it not
expedient," wrote Norfolk to Cecil four days later, " that we
should seem to go about to occupy any part of Scotland, lest
the Scots might hereby take occasion to mislike and fear our
conquest, as now they do the French, whereby indeed, we
might the rather cause our friends to become our enemies." 1
At the same time he realised perfectly well that until the
Scots had plain proof of England's open aid the waverers
would never take side against the French, and presently
announced that he had arranged a conference with Lord
James Stuart, half-brother of Mary Stuart, and future Earl of
Murray, the Master of Maxwell, afterwards Baron Herries,
partisan of Mary Stuart, the third Baron Ruthven, and
Henry Balnaves, the Scottish reformer, who had at one time
acted as Secretary of State to the Regent Arran. Here is
Queen Elizabeth's reply :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.
[Haynes' "Burghley State Papers."]
February 15, 1560.
Right truly and right entirely beloved cousin.
We perceive by your letters dated the 8th of
February, that you have assigned a meeting and
conference with the Lord James, the Master of
Maxwell, the Lord Ruthven, and Mr. Balnaves, the
25th of this month, with whom how you shall proceed
you do desire to be fully instructed, as a matter of
such importance doth appertain.
In this matter we rest still of the same mind as we
did at your departure home ; and, therefore, although
we might refer you to your former instructions given
to you in December, yet by manner of repetition we
let you understand that it remaineth very evident to
us how great and inevitable a danger it should be to
this our realm if the French were permitted to subdue
the Kingdom of Scotland, either by force or practice.
And, therefore^ except it might appear to you, by
conference, either with such wise and expert men as
ye shall judge meet to take advice of, or with the
1 Haynes' Burghley State Papers.
go ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Lords of Scotland, that the nobility and part of
Scotland themselves shall be able to expel the force
of France that is presently there, or otherwise be able
to preserve the kingdom from subduing and sub-
version, our former intent must needs continue to aid
the part of Scotland in the clear expulsion of the
French ; whereby our Kingdom may be more free
from the invasion of France ; and if it shall appear to
you otherwise, then we would be thereof with speed
advertised. And in what manner and when this aid
shall be given, if so it shall be seen necessary, shall be
best considered upon conference with the said Lords
of Scotland at your day appointed ; with whom our
pleasure is you should in this manner treat. First to
make the matter very strange to them that in so long
a time they have not, being in number many more
than the French, expelled the French ; next that
the rest of the nobility of Scotland, and especially
such as be in the Marches and Lothian, have not, in
this cause of the liberty of their country, taken a plain
part with them against the French, which if they had
as it seemeth, that matter had not thus long been
unfinished. And, after this declared, and answered,
(as we think they will answer that with the lack of
our aid they can neither expel the French nor yet
cause the neutrals to take a plain part), we think
meet you proceed with them to consider which is the
best, the readiest and most likely way to expel the
French, and what power the same shall require of
their part, and what power of ours ; in what time
and in what manner the same may be best done :
and whether it must be done by a short or long
siege ; or by assault, or otherwise, and with
what charges by estimation the same may be
done. And for all other particular things of impor-
tance, as for provision of victual, for carriage of
ordnance and munition, for meat, for the horses, and
for such like, we refer to be considered by you, and
such as be expert in those matters. In the considera-
tion whereof you shall have regard first that time be
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 91
not spent and deferred to the increase of our charge
without any service ; next that to the doing hereof, our
charge and numbers be not greater than shall seem
requisite for the effectual exploit, and for the surety of
them which shall do it. In this part you shall also
confer with them how they shall be able to keep their
country free from a new invasion of the French, if by
God's goodness they shall be delivered ; and to inform
you how and in what manner they will and may do
the same ; so as you may judge whether the same be
probable or not. For you may inform them that the
charge were intolerable for us to maintain a continual
army by sea in those northern parts for that purpose ;
although they shall be well assured we mean not to
neglect their defence. And herein may you do well
to show them your advice how they shall best proceed
to the preservation of their country.
Ye shall also let them understand that it is a thing
most evident that the French will enter into an open
hostility with us and our realm upon this our aid
given them ; and therefore it shall be necessary, before
we enter into this evident danger, to understand what
friendship we may certainly hope for of them towards
the impeaching of the French, in case they shall
invade us and our countries, as most likely it is they
will. In which point, if you see convenient, you may
by yourself, or cause some other, propound these two
ways to be the best means — either to have indeed an
aid of their men and ships by sea or land to with-
stand the French if they shall attempt any invasion in
any part of the north of this our realm, or else so to
establish a concord betwixt both these realms and
especially upon these frontiers, as the one might live
in a surety of the other without jealousy or doubt ; by
which means we for our part might better employ the
charges now sustained in the guard of our frontiers
against the French, and they also.
Besides this another means may be devised by
means of Scotland and especially by the Earl of
Argyll — that the north part of Ireland might be
92 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
reduced to a perfect obedience of England ; and so
the force which we have there occupied to subdue
those disordered people, might be better employed to
the defence of the realm against the French, which
will now prove a common enemy to both. This
matter as indeed it will be very beneficial to our realm
in Ireland, so have we no doubt but the Earl of Argyll
will be ready to do his best herein, having already
given a signification of his good will and purpose
thereunto. . . .
The efforts to subdue her " disordered Irishry " lasted
throughout her long reign. At this period they were turning
to Philip II. and the Pope for succour, and Quadra had tried
in vain to persuade his sovereign to make use of such ready
allies for the recovery of his lost influence in England. At the
beginning of the year the Earl of Sussex, who was elevated by
Elizabeth from the rank of Lord Deputy which he had held
under Mary, to that of Lord- Lieutenant, called the Irish
Parliament to destroy the Catholic religion and substitute the
English ecclesiastical settlement. " The Catholic religion
has been suppressed in Ireland " wrote Quadra to Feria on
February n, "although not without great opposition. I
cannot write about this as I should like, as I am so troubled,
and, perhaps, it would make your Lordship more troubled
still, if I were to tell you what I suspect about it. Suffice
to say that if we are content to let God's cause go by the
board it will not take much to drag us down with it. The
Queen rides out every day into the country on a Neapolitan
courser or a jennet to exercise for this war, seated on one of
the saddles they use here. She makes a brave show and
bears herself gallantly. In short the people here are full of
warfare and armaments." l The Bishop saw plainly
enough that the time for mere words had passed if Spain
was to save England for Catholicism, and stop the threatened
rupture with France, which meant, as he foresaw, the
triumph of the Reformation in Scotland, as well as in
England, and the consequent impetus to heresy throughout
Europe.
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 93
BISHOP QUADRA TO COUNT DE FERIA.
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
March 7, 1560.
. . . The coming of the personages to be sent by
His Majesty hither and to France will do more harm
than good if they are only coming to talk, as the
Catholics expect much more than that, but in any case
they will be too late, as the good or ill will be done
before they arrive, the army having to leave here
within a fortnight to attack the French. The Queen
will have to take the matter up more warmly than she
thought, as Randolph tells me the rebel forces are
very few, and the Scots are making no move as she
expected. She is in danger and much alarmed, and
this is the time to do what ought to be done, but if
we are to be always on the defensive, and to continue
to palliate such things, I can only say patience !
although I well know we shall never have such an
opportunity again. All are with us, and the very
heretics are sick of it. I do not presume to speak
openly of the matter in this spirit, as I am not a
turbulent or boasting person, and do not want to
appear so. Lord Robert has sent Sidney to speak to
me, and I have spoken plainly to him, and have even
let the Queen see how pained I am. . . . He (Lord
Robert) is the worst and most procrastinating young
man I ever saw in my life, and not at all courageous
or spirited. I have brought all the artillery I can to
bear upon him, and, by my faith ! if it were not for
some fear of our own house I would soon give the
historians something to talk about. Not a man in
England but cries out at the top of his voice that
this fellow is ruining the country with his vanity.
The Flemish envoy sent on the mission mentioned by
Quadra — chiefly as a sort of forlorn hope to Elizabeth to
settle the Scottish crisis — received the following letter from
Philip before sailing, full instructions having already been
given to him by the Duchess of Parma :
94 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
PHILIP II. TO M. DE GLAJON.
[Teulet: " Papier s d'£tat relatifs a I'histoire d'£cosse."]
March, 1560.
Monsieur de Glajon,
I have no doubt that you will have heard of the
matters which have passed between the King of
France and the Queen of England on account of the
soldiers whom the said Lord King sent into Scotland
on the pretext of chastising his rebellious subjects, the
said Lady Queen jealously regarding them as being
intended for some other purpose. And, inasmuch as
it is a far reaching affair, and one which my good
subjects of the Low Countries may resent, I have
considered it would be well for me to intercede, and
set matters right in good time. I am therefore send-
ing you to the Queen of England, the good zeal and
experience which I have known in you having made
me confident, not only that you will take up the
charge, but also that you will know very well how to
fulfil it.
The Flemish envoy fared no better than the Spanish
Ambassador. " My own belief," wrote De Glajon to the
Duchess of Parma, " is that she will endeavour to keep
us temporising with words while she works her will." The
arrival of Winter's fleet in the Firth had already clinched
matters with the wavering Scots, and on February 27 their
leaders and the Duke of Norfolk concluded the Treaty of
Berwick " for the defence of the ancient rights and liberty of
their country." By this treaty Elizabeth bound herself to
help the Scots to expel the French and not to retain any
of the places which she might capture from them. The
Scottish lords on their side were pledged to help Elizabeth
in the event of any French invasion of English territory, and
to decline to enter into any closer union with France than
existed previously to Mary Stuart's marriage. Argyll also
undertook to assist Elizabeth in the subjection of Northern
Ireland. The story of the events following the arrival of
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 145.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 95
Winter's fleet is told in Quadra's next letter, as well as in
Winter's own account, describing the way in which he had
contrived to carry out his mistress's Machiavellian instruc-
tions. This is Winter's account to Norfolk, in relating
how the Queen Regent had sent a herald aboard to demand
the reason of his visit and whether he came as an enemy :
I said I was sent by the Queen my mistress to
conduct divers ships with ordnance, provision, etc. to
her fort of Berwick ; and there being no sure anchor-
age there, I brought the fleet hither, thinking there
was peace and expecting friendly entertainment ;
but, coming into Leith Roads, the French forts at
Inchkeith, Leith and Burntisland shot at me many
cruel shot of cannon and culverin, and thereon, hear-
ing their great cruelty to the Congregation of Scotland,
and the captivity it is like to fall into, I determined to
give them all the aid I might against the wicked
practice of the French ; and that hereof the Queen's
Highness my mistress was nothing privy." l
It may be doubted, as Froude says, whether falsehood so
transparent was of real service to Elizabeth. " Such a mask
is easy to strip off," as the Queen Regent wrote to Noailles.
But it must be remembered that Elizabeth herself was
surrounded by diplomacy which was equally treacherous.
She was playing an utterly unscrupulous game in an age in
which the end was everywhere supposed to justify the
means. Her suspicions against the French were by no
means groundless. The Spanish ambassadors were them-
selves convinced, as they told the Duchess of Parma, that
though the French Ambassador assured them that the plans
which Henry II. had conceived for the invasion of Elizabeth's
kingdom had been abandoned, the real object of France at
the moment was to separate England from Scotland in order to
make this conquest of her ancient enemy the easier when
the time came.2 Quadra kept the Duchess well-informed of
the march of events as far as he could understand them :
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 301.
3 Teulet: " Papiers d'Etat," Vol. I., p. 527,
96 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, March 7, 1560.
. . . The other day the Queen's ships which went
to Scotland entered the Firth and arrived off Leith
fort, whence the French opened fire upon them and
damaged two of the ships. The English shot at them
and placed their artillery on a small island near the
fort, but they could do no damage as they were too far
off. In the meanwhile three French ships came up
with munitions and stores, and the English went at
them, and drove them ashore on the land held by the
rebels, who sacked them, and they were afterwards
taken by the English ships, which still remain at the
same place, and provide themselves with what they
require from the Scots by purchase, having refused
to accept supplies without payment. The Queen
Regent sent a trumpeter from Edinburgh to ask the
English whether they came as friends or foes, and if
they had been sent by the Queen of England and
meant to help the rebels. The Queen says that
Winter, the vice-admiral, answered that they had
come there as friends, but had found enemies, and
that the Queen of England having sent them to
Berwick, the weather had forced them to the place
where they were, and that they did not mean to help
the rebels, only in so far as they were unjustly treated
by the Queen Regent. The Queen Regent sent to
ask the same questions of the Duke of Norfolk who
was at Newcastle, and who answered that he came to
the frontier only to protect the realm of England.
Five or six days ago both the French ambassadors,
the old one and the one that has just arrived, went
together to the Queen and showed her a letter from
the Queen Regent of Scotland in which, as this Queen
avers, there were certain injurious expressions about
her. The rest of the letter contained an account of
what had passed with the ships, differing, however,
from the English account in saying that the vessels
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 97
had arrived there in perfectly fine weather in no need
or danger, and they had replied to the trumpeter to
the effect that it was true they had come to help the
Congregation as persons who were being oppressed
and aggrieved by the French. After the ambassadors
had shown tHis letter, they said the Queen Regent
would send hither a herald to ask on what terms this
Queen wished to be with her, as friend or foe, and on
the Ambassador Noailles leaving, he asked her to
decide on this point, as he wished to send word to his
master. She answered them very confusedly, and at
last said she would send her decision. The next day
she sent Cecil and Mason to them to say that she
would be friendly or otherwise with the French accord-
ing as they gave her cause to be. They then wanted
to know whether the cause was already given, or
whether it was only feared it might be given in the
future. The answer was that they could best judge of
that by their own actions and intentions. I think they
have discussed here all the various grievances and
complaints that both parties have against each
other.
So far as concerns the arms and title assumed by
the King of France, there would probably be no great
difficulty in the French abandoning them, but as
regards withdrawing their troops from Scotland and
leaving the country to the natives, which is the point
upon which all turns, they say they will never consent
to it. The English on the other hand set forth that
without this they shall never be safe, and the people
whom the French call rebels the English regard as
true and faithful subjects of their Queen, as they only
seek to free their country from the tyranny of the
French. In short they could not agree, and the
ambassador sent a courier to France to be followed
by the Ambassador Noailles. They feel sure that the
Marquis of Elbceuf, who will leave Dieppe this week
with ten ships, will be attacked by the English, and I
believe they are not mistaken, as the Queen first, and
Cecil afterwards, told me about it, and said that they
E.M.S. H
98 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
will use every effort to turn the French out of Scot-
land, and to prevent help reaching them, especially
victuals, of which they are certainly in sore need. I
do not see how she can deal with the French in
any other way, or satisfy the Scots, whom she has
promised not to come to terms, unless they do so first.
Before the end of March Grey's army of 6,000 foot and
2,000 horse had crossed the frontier to join forces with
the Scots in the siege of Leith, whither the French troops
had again retreated on Winter's arrival. The following Pro-
clamation was issued by Elizabeth explaining the aims and
limitations of her expedition, as well as the special grievances
of England against the House of Guise. It was printed in
French for the world at large, as well as in English : 1
PROCLAMATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.]
Although it is evident and notorious, not only to
the Queen's subjects but also to many other foreign
nations in all parts of Christendom, that great
occasions have of late been given and continued by
the French to fear an attack from them on this
kingdom, principally by way of Scotland, and that
her Majesty in like manner should prepare with all
speed the necessary forces to resist them by the same
way of Scotland, the Queen nevertheless, considering
the great diversity of opinions which might arise
among people in general about this affair, has willed
briefly and openly to declare and publish her determi-
nation and its just causes to the world.
In the first place the Queen of her gentle and
gracious nature has been pleased to believe that the
title to this kingdom injuriously pretended in so
many ways by the Queen of Scotland, has not
proceeded otherwise than from the ambitious desire
of the principal members of the House of Guise, who
1 The English Proclamation is printed in the Foreign Calendar
for 1559—60 (pp. 472 and 473). The Venetian translation, which
differs from the English text, was probably made from the French
version.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH
99
had lately made themselves masters of the govern-
ment of the Crown of France ; nor can her Majesty
believe that either the King, who by reason of his
youth, is incapable of such an enterprise, or the
Queen of Scots, who is likewise very young, or the
princes of the blood royal and other persons of high
estate in France, to whom the government of that
kingdom appertained heretofore, and ought to apper-
tain during the King's infancy, have of themselves
imagined and deliberated an enterprise so unjust,
unreasonable, and perilous, as any person of good
and indifferent judgment can judge this to be. And
the said House of Guise, considering that for their
private gain there was no other way to obtain it than
by increasing the greatness and exaltation of their
niece the Queen of Scotland, under pretence of whom
they now meddle with the government of the kingdom
of France, have thus injuriously and insolently set
forth, and even in time of peace, in public places,
have continued to appropriate the arms and titles of
these realms of England and Ireland in the name of
their niece, besides doing many infamous acts, as
affirmed by many persons, without the knowledge of
the princes of the blood royal and other great
personages and sage councillors, long experienced in
the affairs of that kingdom. To pursue the execution
of this their unjust and ambitious resolve, they have
availed themselves of the authority of the King and
of the Queen, their niece, it being unnatural that she
should seek to remove the Crown of Scotland from the
hands of the native Scots ; and so partly through the
forces sent by them already under the aforesaid
pretence, and partly [through the reinforcements]
which are to be sent, they have determined to
continue the attack on this kingdom of England, of
which although to their great dishonour they have
made their niece usurp the title, they still know that
in no other way than through Scotland would they
ever be able to accomplish the evident mischief they
desire.
H 2
ioo ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Her Majesty, therefore, having experienced in
many calamities the singular goodness of God, and
knowing the good right of her cause, and the natural
obedience and love of her faithful subjects, and that
these insolent enterprises proceed solely from the
sinister comportment of the Guise family during the
infancy of the King and Queen, without obtaining in
any way the consent of the princes of the blood and
of other great lords and states of France ; and the
Queen of her own nature and inclination having no
other greater desire than to continue and preserve the
peace with all Christian princes (most especially at
this time of the occurrence of such unusual and
difficult operations), especially with France and
Scotland and all their subjects ; makes known to all
persons in general that although she has been com-
pelled at her great cost to assemble forces both by sea
and land for the security of her kingdom, having been
challenged in this manner by words and by a false
title, being moreover provoked by the vicinity of the
French soldiers, and by the threats of their being
reinforced from day to day, nevertheless she does not
intend on this account to wage war, or to do any act
of cruelty, but seeks and endeavours solely, having
many times openly and amicably requested the
Cardinal of Lorraine and his brother, and also
through their means the King of France, that these
titles and too insolent pretensions should be with-
drawn and revoked, and that they should agree with
the people of Scotland on a suitable and natural form
of government, not departing from the due obedience
to their Sovereign, as they themselves offer, so that
they may no longer have to fear oppression and
conquest ; and consequently that the French soldiers
in Scotland should be recalled, making compensation
for their former attacks on this kingdom, it being too
perilous to have them for so long a period so near
England. That their recall may proceed more
speedily, it has been offered to give them safe
conduct, both by water and by land, for their
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 101
departure with all the favour and security that they
could desire, and that according to the diminution of
their forces those of the Queen by land and sea
should be simultaneously reduced. Thus all cause
for displeasure would remain buried in oblivion, and
a firm and sincere peace be established. But to
these demands, so conformable to equity, reason, and
honour, though frequently made by her Majesty, she
can by no means obtain a sufficient reply, although
much time has been employed to her very great cost,
and the evident ruin of the peace and friendship.
Finally, her Majesty makes known to all that she
continues and will continue to remain at peace with
the realms of France and Scotland so long as no
manifest invasion be made upon her dominions or
people, and that she will procure by all good means
that a union and good agreement may take place in
Scotland, and that the French soldiers who are
dissatisfied with it, may depart without harm and in
security ; but if they refuse to do so after all these
good means have been employed, and after so many
delays made on the part of France, they must
necessarily then be made to retreat, without using
any further violence whatever against persons either
of France or of Scotland.
Her Majesty therefore commands and strictly
enjoins all her subjects, of whatever condition they
may be, to show all favour and friendship to all the
subjects of the King, and to let them trade in all
sorts of merchandise, as has been customary in the
time of the best peace, and ought to be allowed,
unless, however, the Queen's subjects be hostilely
compelled to defend themselves or their country ; and
all her Majesty's subjects will in their discourse
speak well and decorously of France and the French
nation, and notwithstanding all these great injuries
done lately to the Crown of England as aforesaid, the
said subjects will not judge otherwise than is believed
and judged by the Queen in person from her good
inclination. Nor will they make other preparations
102 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
of war than such as may serve for defence against
such injuries and enterprises as shall be made and
directed against this kingdom (contrary to what her
Majesty desires and expects) at the instigation of the
said House of Guise, who now have in their hands the
entire government of the King and Queen, until it be
seen whether the said kingdom and people of France
intend any longer to invade this country, and also
whether her Majesty's present good opinion be not
well received. Although this would greatly disturb
and displease the Queen, by reason of the hindrance
and delay of the general peace of all Christendom,
which she declares above all things, it is not yet to be
doubted but that the Almighty will aid and assist the
forces of this realm to guard it against all dangers,
and honourably to revenge the injuries done, as the
case requires.
For the better understanding of all persons her
Majesty has willed this to be expressly proclaimed in
English and French, as although she had made a
particular demonstration of the same to the King of
France, and to the said Lords of Guise, as also to
the Queen Dowager of Scotland, and to all the
French Ambassadors in these parts, she has as yet
been unable to obtain a sufficient reply, and her
Majesty desires that it may not be hidden from them
lest they be induced to believe what is contrary to the
truth.
Given at Westminster on the 24th of March, in the
second year of her reign.
More than mere coincidence is probably needed to account
for the fact that this Proclamation was issued in French as
well as English at the time of the Tumult of Amboise — " the
first scud before a storm which," in the words of Froude,
"was about to deluge France with blood," and now left her
impotent at the most critical moment in the affairs 01
Scotland. " They know not where to turn," wrote Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton from Paris in one of his letters at
this period to Cecil. " He that all trust to-day, to-morrow
is least trusted. You can imagine your advantage. Spend
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 103
your money now, and never in England was money better
spent than this will be. Use the time while you have it." l
The Guises suspected Elizabeth — probably not without some
foundation — of knowing more than appeared on the surface
of the inner history of that religious outbreak, which, like the
Proclamation just printed, was aimed first of all at the heads
of the House of Guise. " This has been the greatest con-
spiracy of which there has been any record, for there was
knowledge of it in England, Scotland, Germany and almost
all over Christendom." These were the words of the French
Ambassador to the Spanish Court in describing the Tumult
of Amboise to the Venetian Ambassador, when he maintained
that Elizabeth was at the root of the whole trouble : a
Thus did I hear this event narrated by the French
Ambassador, who in all his communications endea-
vours to represent the Queen of England as of a very
restless mind, and that by means of religion she
attempted to harass foreign States ; accusing her,
most especially to King Philip, of having been the
principal cause of the disturbances in Scotland by
constantly negotiating with the insurgents, and
through the encouragement which she afforded them
not only by counsel and promises but with troops
and considerable forces, which she keeps near Scot-
land with the design of at length making herself
mistress of that kingdom if she can. The Ambassador
remarked to his Majesty how dangerous this mode of
proceeding might be not only to France, but also to
him, as he holds the Low Countries, which are very
much corrupted with all these new heresies. By this
office he so exasperated the King against Queen
Elizabeth that, as the Ambassador himself told me,
his Majesty assured him that unless she ceased to
act thus, he would wage war upon her.8
If that was exactly what the Guises hoped Philip
would do they were destined to be disappointed. Philip
was no more able to wage war outside his own kingdom at
1 Froude.
2 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., pp. 171 — 2.
3 Ibid,, p. 173.
104 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
this time than was the King of France, having returned to
Spain not only full of anxiety at the growth of heresy he had
left behind in the Netherlands, but with something very like
bankruptcy staring him in the face. "The King since his
arrival in Spain," wrote the Venetian Ambassador at Toledo,
•'* is in great want of money, because in Flanders the
pecuniary supply which was made for the war served also for
the expenses of his Majesty's household, whereas here the
revenues are mortgaged for a long period, and the debts are
very considerable." l So that all his talk of waging war on
France's behalf was mere bluster, though M. de Glajon did
not hesitate on his arrival in England to threaten Elizabeth
with a Franco-Spanish alliance if she persisted in her Scot-
tish campaign.2 In his first interview he coolly suggested
that she should recall her army from Scotland, whereupon
Elizabeth, as Glajon told his master in his long-winded
account of this discussion, " answered with some anger that
it was too late to withdraw her troops, or to talk about
reconciliation except sword in hand." As to helping the
Scottish rebels, as the Spanish Sovereign had called them,
she did not consider these people as such — otherwise, she
declared, she would have to punish them herself :
She thought these people were only defending their
Queen, and the rights and liberties of their country,
and by helping them she considered she was assuring
her crown and dignity. I pointed out to her in reply
that your Majesty considered them as rebels, as they
had risen against their sovereign, and had changed
the religion, which could not be excused in any way.
As regards the state of her affairs and her difficulties
and expenses she replied that she hoped our Lord,
whom she called upon to witness her sincerity in this
matter, and Who had upheld her in worse perplexities
and reverses, would sustain her in the future, and she
put her whole trust in Him.
Finally, respecting the expedient proposed by your
Majesty to send your own people to Scotland for her
security, she answered that she thought no other
1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 142.
2 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., April 7.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 105
forces should be sent to Scotland except by the King
of France, although those he had there at present
should be withdrawn, leaving the country at peace,
and she asked me whether the King of France was
willing that your Majesty should send your troops
and subjects to Scotland. Thinking that she asked
this question with no good motive or desire to accede
to the proposal, but rather from curiosity, I answered
that at present that was not the question, but only to
obtain her views on the matter. We were not able,
however, to get her to declare herself, although she
showed no surprise. She began to tire of the long
interview, which had lasted about an hour and a half,
and on seeing this we asked her to be pleased to appoint
another time to meet us and discuss the matter in
the presence of her Council, and give us her final
decision in order to advise your Majesty. She fixed
to-morrow.1
Elizabeth did not attend the meeting on the morrow as
promised, pleading indisposition, but the Council was no more
to be frightened by Spanish threats than was Elizabeth her-
self. Bishop Quadra was probably more disappointed with
this result than was the Flemish Ambassador, who had no love
for the French, and warned the Spaniard in secret " that the
Low Countries would in no wise endure a quarrel with
England." The depth of diplomatic duplicity at this period
is fully revealed in Cecil's entry in his diary on the subject :
" M. de Glajon came and joined with the Bishop of Aquila
to move a revocation of the army out of Scotland, but
Glajon privately to my Lord Admiral and me, the Secretary,
counselled us to the contrary."
Quadra, also, was by no means unsuspicious of French
designs, and though he distrusted England more, joined with
the Flemish Ambassador in hinting to the Duchess of Parma
that " all the actions and proceedings of the French are
directed to bring us into hatred and distrust with the Eng-
lish, in order to have the course clear for themselves, and
then arrange together without our intervention.2 Each of
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 142 — 5.
a Ibid., pp. 149 — 150.
io6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
them declined to be present when the French Ambassador
read his formal protest to Queen Elizabeth in the presence
of most of the members of the Council :
PROTEST OF M. MICHAEL DE SEURRE TO QUEEN
ELIZABETH.
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.]
Since the death of the most Christian King it has
been openly seen that the King, his son, wished to
succeed not only to the inheritance of his kingdom,
but also the same zeal and affection for the repose
and quiet of Christendom which had moved him to
terminate the wars he had with the other Kings, his
neighbours, and to establish between them a good
and lasting peace and friendship ; the said successor
not having omitted whatever was fitting and neces-
sary for its maintenance and conservation, as testified
by facts, and most especially with regard to the
Queen of England, his good sister and cousin, towards
whom he has used every possible good demonstration
in his power, both by complying with the obligation
of maintaining the hostages in England for the affair
of Calais, as also by preserving for English subjects
in this kingdom free and secure trade and contracts,
no one of them being wronged or injured without
reparation. Nevertheless, the Scots in this time of
tranquillity having rebelled and withdrawn from their
obedience to the said King and the Queen, his con-
sort and their sovereign Lady, for the reduction of
whom he had sent armed forces, the said Queen of
England has fitted out a strong and powerful fleet,
and an army likewise, and sent both to Scotland,
founding the cause of these preparations on her
suspicion that the French forces now there, and to be
sent hereafter, were destined for the invasion of
England, as she alleged had been threatened, under
pretext that the Queen of France, Queen of Scotland,
had the title and arms of England. But the King of
France gave her immediately to understand by his
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 107
Ambassadors the sincerity of his intention, and how
averse he was to infringe the treaty, or attempt any-
thing to the prejudice of the said sovereign Lady and
her kingdom. To give her yet more certain testi-
mony he has delayed the preparation of other forces
destined by him for Scotland, and endeavoured to
effect the reduction of the rebels by a favourable
consideration of their misdeeds, which he was content
to forget and to pardon if they tendered him their due
obedience. Of this he has made declaration and
offer to them, even praying the said sovereign Lady
to mediate with them, to the end that this fact might
relieve them [her?] from any suspicion and jealousy
of the said forces, offering to remove the greater part
subsequently, leaving only such as should be required
for the security of his territories, and to ensure
obedience ; which forces would be in such small
number as no longer to leave any reasonable cause
for doubt on this account ; and as for the rest, that
the said King on his part would appoint envoys
(should she choose to do the like) to settle the other
differences which might arise between their Majesties,
and treat them amicably, as declared by the articles
of the said peace.
To this proposal the said sovereign Lady offered
no other expedient for the decision of all differences
except the total recall of all the French forces in
Scotland within a prefixed period, without choosing
to enter into further negotiation and dispute ; which
cannot but be deemed a very strange proceeding
as, in this time of peace, negotiations are the
mediators between Kings and Princes for the pacifi-
cation of their differences, without its being lawful
for one or the other to give laws or to impose con-
ditions, which can only be applied to their own
subjects and vassals. And what is worse, she has
sent her fleet to Scotland, where it has made many
depredations on the said King's subjects, both on its
arrival on certain ships of war which were stationed
for the safe custody of the Firth, and subsequently
io8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
on many other vessels laden with provisions belong-
ing to the said King and to many of his subjects.
She has also waged open war upon his ministers
and soldiers there, to the point of endeavouring to
land on the Island of Chaulx,1 to take it by surprise,
imprisoning many of the said soldiers, and doing
many other warlike acts. This convinced the said
King that the said sovereign Lady intended to
proceed further, especially as no grounds were
afforded by the King's forces, of the number of
which he had always informed her, the causes of
her complaints being alike groundless, as she has
nothing to do with, nor anything to take cognizance
of, in Scotland.
The King believes that he had given ample
satisfaction by declaring his goodwill to maintain
the said peace and by his offers to come to an
amicable adjustment with her, as repeated by his
Ambassador in England, the like being announced
to her Ambassador resident with him. He has also
appointed the Bishop of Valence, his Privy Coun-
cillor, a very worthy person, and of authority with
him, and has sent him likewise to confirm to the
said Lady his good intention, which is wholly
inclined towards the repose of Christendom, and
to the continuation of the good friendship between
their Majesties ; the Bishop being also charged to
hear from her if she had still any scruple, so that
he might give the King notice of it, and then proceed
to Scotland to try and reduce the rebels to the
obedience of the said King and of the Queen his
consort, their sovereign Princess, through the
clemency of their Majesties, who in that case offer
to forget all their past misdeeds, and then to recall the
greater part of their forces, and thus relieve the
Queen of England from any further doubt on the
subject. Nor on the other hand did the King omit
to employ the mediation of his good brother the King
Catholic with the said Lady ; whereupon King Philip,
1 Sic; i.e. Burntisland.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 109
desiring the maintenance of peace, and well knowing
the devastation caused by war, sent M. de Glajon
to England. But notwithstanding so many good
offices performed by the King of France, which
easily make known to all Christendom the sincerity
of his entire intention and aversion to turmoil, the
King could not prevent the Queen of England from
sending an army and fleet to Scotland, to expel the
ministers and soldiers of the said Lords (King and
Queen), as she has fully declared in a proclamation
which she had printed, and which contains no
semblance whatever of right, it being evident that
this would be the way to deprive the King and
the Queen his consort of the said kingdom, which
would be a very unjust result, and moreover a very
bad example to all Christian princes, that subjects
who have rebelled against their natural lords should
be thus favoured in their rebellion.
Of all this the King of France has chosen to make
a declaration to Queen Elizabeth, having given the
Bishop an express commission to this effect, and
again to renew the assurance of his desire for the
preservation and duration of the peace, and the offer
of an amicable negotiation, as previously proposed
to the Queen ; which the said Ambassador did on
the I5th of this month both to the Queen and to
the Lords of her Council in the presence of Signor
Florens da Jaceto,1 who on the said day presented
to them the King's letters, asking credence for him
in what concerned this office ; the Ambassador
praying the Queen to renounce hostilities, and to
refer their differences for decision to personages to
be elected by one side and the other. They answered
him that their fleet had been for twelve days near
the little harbour ready to continue the undertaking
for which the Queen ordered it to enter Scotland,
namely, to expel the French ; continuing the afore-
1 The presentation of Diaceto alias Adjaceto to Queen Elizabeth
took place on April 15, 1560. Apparently he merely said that the
King of France was sorry to see her preparations for war.
no ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
said threats, and saying that the Queen did not
intend to lose time from interested motives, thus
directly infringing the treaty of peace.
M. de Seurre, therefore, and the French Ambas-
sadors with the Queen, being charged to protest
against this rupture of the treaties, prayed the afore-
said M. de Glajon and the Bishop of Aquila, Ambas-
sador of the King Catholic, to be present before the
Queen, that they (the French) might make the protest
in their presence, and remind her of all the offices
performed by the King of France to satisfy her in
what was reasonable, for the avoidance of any
alteration of the good peace and friendship existing
between their Majesties, so that they might bear
witness that the King of France had not failed to
do what he could to adjust matters amicably ; but
they having refused, because they had no commission
from King Philip to that effect, M. de Seurre referred
them to the testimony of the writing, which he had
put into form as above, and then replied by word of
mouth to the Queen in the presence of the Lords of
her Council ; and having obtained leave from her
Majesty to execute what had been commanded him
on this subject, he protested on behalf of the King
of France, as he again protests with all humble
reverence by the present writing, against the rupture
of those treaties, and that all the preparations made
and making by his Majesty for Scotland were merely
to recover the obedience due to him and to the
Queen his consort, having on this sole account
offered to forget every offensive act of his subjects,
and to pardon the past, as he again offers to do, and
to comply with the said treaties, by appointing persons
to settle amicably what remains for decision between
their Majesties, and also to use all such ways and
means as may be used between friends, and render
her secure by recalling his forces after the submission
of his subjects. With regard to the fears she expresses
about its being contrary to her interests to desist
from her undertaking against his kingdom, and to
THE SIEGE OF LEITH in
accept terms, the King of France will endeavour
to defend himself and to preserve his own, protesting
that if he is compelled to enter into a war, as the
sequel to this commencement made by the Queen of
England, it will be very greatly to his regret and
displeasure, as the whole world may judge, and
solely in self-defence.
Elizabeth took the protest in very bad part, as Quadra and
his colleague afterwards told the Duchess of Parma.1 Roused
into one of her violent humours, there was no beating
about the bush in her lengthy outburst in reply, which Froude
condenses as follows :
You complain of the fleet and army which we have
sent to Scotland. What were we to do ? Have we
forgotten, think you, your treachery at Ambletue,
when our brother was King ? You challenge our
crown ; you deny our right to be Queen. You snatch
the pretext of a rebellion to collect your armies on
our Border ; and you expect us to sit still like children.
You complain that we sent our fleet to intercept your
reinforcements. It is true we did so ; and the fleet
has done its work ; and what then ?
Those cannon, those arms, those stores, which you
sent to Leith were not meant only or chiefly for Scot-
land ; they were meant for us. You tell us we are
maintaining your rebels — we hate rebels : but the
Scots are none. These men whom you call rebels
are the same who fought against England at Pinkie
Cleugh. It is you who are in fault — you who stole
the rule of their country from them, overthrew their
laws and sought to govern them with foreign garrisons.
You have seized their fortresses, you have corrupted
their money, you have filled their offices of trust with
greedy Frenchmen, to rob and pillage them ; and
they endured all this till they saw their sovereign
the childless Queen of a foreign prince — herself an
absentee — and their country, should she die, about to
become a province of France.
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 151.
H2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
With these facts before us we are not to be blinded
with specious words. We know what was intended
for ourselves — some of your own statesmen have given
us warning of it. Your Queen claims our crown ; and
you think that we shall be satisfied with words. You
say you recalled d'Elbceuf. The winds and the waves
recalled him, and our fleet in the Forth frightened
him from a second trial. You have given us promises
upon promises ; yet our style is still filched from us
and your garrisons are still in Leith. We have for-
borne long enough. We mean nothing against your
mistress's lawful rights : but events must now take
their course.
The English Protestant view was expressed at this time in
a letter to Cecil from Lord John Grey, who had shared in
Wyatt's revolt in Mary's reign, and only obtained his life
through the intercession of his wife. The letter was written
from Pyrgo, in Essex, one of the estates granted to him by
Elizabeth :
LORD JOHN GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."']
PYRGO, April 20, 1560.
. . . My trust is that her Majesty will now go
through with what she hath begun, because it is God's
cause, the Commonwealth's safety, and her own
surety. And as for King Philip's aiding of his brother
against the heretic Scots, the Queen may (and she
will not sleep her matters) win Leith, and put the
country in some good stay before he shall be able to
levy a man. There are but three ways to the winning
of a fort — famine, assault and the mine ; the first is
long and tedious ; the second is some loss of men ;
the last is easiest of all, the ground serving for it.
But what thing was there ever achieved or won by
war without the loss of men and expense of money ?
I know not what great ordnance My Lord of Norfolk
hath with him, but if he have good provision of wheels,
every ship there may lend him a cannon, and their
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 113
ships never a whit the more unfurnished ; and so,
while they trench for the placing of their battery, may
with more safety and less suspicion enter their mines,
for I know and remember well the ground, that I am
sure the upper part of the town of Leith will be
undermined. The coalminers at Newcastle will serve
to do this well enough ; therefore I pray you set it to
work, that the Queen's money be not spent in vain, to
our shame, her dishonour, and the great applauding
of God's enemies and hers, the Papists I mean, as
well abroad as at home. The Queen must so counte-
nance My Lord Grey with some good entertainment,
as she may put a new courage in him, and then let
him alone ; giving him his furniture. God willing, I
mind to see you within these fourteen days, wherefore
I say the less now. Thus with my commendations
(from the bottom of my heart) to My Lady my cousin
and you, I bid ye farewell in Christ.
Your loving cousin and assured friend to his
power,
JOHN GREY.
The letter which the Queen's Council wrote to Lord Grey
on bidding him God speed might almost have been written
in answer to the above. It wastes no words in empty rhetoric,
or long-winded instructions. Obviously, the Council meant,
as Lord John advised, to give him good courage, and then let
him alone :
THE QUEEN'S COUNCIL TO LORD GREY DE WILTON.
[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."]
After our hearty commendations. We will not
trouble your Lordship howsoever you be occupied,
but bid God speed you, and wish you all good fortune
to accomplish this so honourable a journey as never
the like was attempted for good to our posterity.
Stick not to go through with this enterprise, and your
praise will be more than all the rest of your life, if all
your life were laid together. Take heed of French
E.M.S. i
H4 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
enchantments ; they will win time of you, if you take
not good end. Well, thus we leave your Lordship to
your business.
Unfortunately Lord Grey, though full of courage, and
eager to atone for his loss of Guisnes in 1558, failed to
fulfil the high hopes which had been centred in him. The
new siege of Leith, where the French troops were under the
command of D'Oyssel, resolved itself for the first month into
a series of parleys and ineffective skirmishes. " My Lord
Grey," wrote Norfolk, who remained with the reserves at
Newcastle, to Cecil on April 26, " showejh himself forward
enough, but all is not in him that hath been thought. I am
a subject and will obey, but if with my allegiance I may, I
will rather lie in prison than ever come such a journey, where
another shall have the doing and I the burthen. . . . The
mariners [Winter's sailors] offer, if they might have the
spoil, they will enter it, or die therefore. There is no
defence to the water side, but borders with sand cast against
it ; and no other part of the town much stronger, except it be
towards the north-west part, where they have made a citadel
which will serve them to small purpose when they have lost
the nether part of the town." *
Meantime, on the approach of the English army, the Queen
Regent had taken refuge in Edinburgh Castle, held by the
neutral Lord Erskine. She was slowly dying from dropsy,
and knew that her days were numbered, but nothing could
daunt her courageous spirit, and to the last she remained
the most heroic figure of the campaign. While the siege
of Leith was in progress John de Monluc, the Bishop of
Valence, had been sent to Scotland by way of the English
Court, as stated on p. 108, assuring Elizabeth that his sole
desire was to satisfy her Majesty in the matter. Once in
Scotland, however, where his protracted negotiations took the
heart out of the siege, his efforts, in concert with the Queen
Regent, were aimed solely with the view of striking a bargain
with the Scots at England's expense. Happily this double
dealing was doomed to failure, the plot so cunningly devised
collapsing because the Scots, to their credit, declined to
renounce their alliance with their allies, though Monluc and
1 Haynes' Burghley Papers.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 115
the Regent promised, if they would do so, to send away all
the French troops, to grant a general pardon to the rebels,
and guarantee them liberty of conscience. " The parley broke
up," wrote the Queen Regent in an intercepted letter to
D'Oyssel, "on the article of the league with England, for
they would not revoke their hostages, and would have put
the matter to the Estates. They are gone so far they cannot
get out of it ; whereof I can very well make profit, and will
not fail to publish it. My health is better, but I am
still lame," she adds, " and have a leg that assuageth not
from swelling. If any lay his finger upon it, it goeth in
as into butter. You know there are but three days for the
dropsy in this country." l The grief of Mary Stuart when
she learned how her mother was situated — without hope of
further help being sent her for months — is described by the
Venetian Ambassador at the Court of France :
When the great danger of the Queen Regent was
known here, she being at the mercy of the English,
the most Christian Queen [Mary Stuart], both on
account of her mother, lest she remain prisoner, as
also from her Majesty's own fear for the loss of her
kingdom, would take no sort of comfort or consolation
given her either by the most Christian King, by the
Queen-mother [Catherine de' Medici], by her uncles,
or by the other Princes or Princesses of the Court ;
she shed most bitter tears incessantly, and at length
from anguish and sorrow has taken to her bed.2
Monluc had left the Queen Regent after the failure of his
negotiations and proceeded to Berwick, promising a relieving
army by July at the latest. Leith had provisions which
were variously estimated as likely to last to June, July, or
August. Up to the present the French troops had still proved
more than a match for the undisciplined Englishmen, and
the equally unseasoned Scots, weakened as they were by
fatal jealousies and distrust. The allies were taught more
than one rough lesson by the beleaguered garrison during this
month, notably on one occasion, when a party of French-
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 389.
8 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 198.
I 2
n6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
men, disguised as women, coolly walked round the English
trenches, killed a sentinel who had probably suspected their
identity, and carried off his head with which to decorate a
pinnacle of Leith Church. On the following day, flushed
with this little success, the Frenchmen made a surprise
attack in considerable force, spiked all the guns within
reach, and did not retire until they had placed a hundred
and sixty men hors de combat, and brought half the investing
army into the field. " It was one of the hottest skirmishes
ever seen," wrote the Duke of Norfolk in reporting the
affair to Cecil.1 Norfolk grew increasingly restive, and
Elizabeth herself, now that Monluc's treachery had been
discovered, ordered the siege to be more earnestly prosecuted.
Grey accordingly pushed his lines forward, and a succession
of small successes led him to write hopefully of an early
capture of the position. On April 30 a destructive fire broke
out in the town and he thought that at length he had the
place within his grasp. Yet the next day the French gaily
undeceived him by a brave display of maypoles on the walls.
At the beginning of this month, too, the Regent was able to
send d'Oyssel warning of the disastrous assault which Grey
delivered on May 7, goaded to desperation by these and
other humiliations, as well as by impatient messages from
Court :
THE QUEEN REGENT OF SCOTLAND TO D'OYSSEL.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times"}
May, 1560.
Since the arrival of the enemy outside Leith, I
have heard nothing from you. I have sent divers
letters to you, and have learned that they have been
all taken in going. The negotiation is broken upon
the coming of the English, because our folk will not,
or cannot, leave off, and it is now eight days since
they went hence. The Queen of England continueth
her dissimulations : but for all that, the King resteth
not so much thereupon, but that he hath advertised
the King of Spain thereof, who hath promised to let
1 Hatfield MSS. L, p. 211.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 117
him have ships and victuals. The King in the mean-
time hath caused four and twenty great ships to be
armed to be sent hither, with other force, which he
causes to be made ready. This is the substance of a
letter sent to the Bishop of Valence. . . .
A man, of late, which arrived from London, hath
promised to Lord Grey to separate, within three days
and nights, the new bulwark of St. Anthony from
the town, so as it shall be easy for them to assail
the rest of the town, wherefore provide for it on that
side. The Lord Grey vaunteth that by Monday or
Tuesday night, which shall be the 6th or yth day of
May, he will enter into the town, or it shall cost him
many of his men, and their meaning is to give the
assault at the break of day. They have required that
the Lords, Lairds, and Scots' gentlemen take every
one of them an English gentleman of like degree by
the hand when they go to the assault.
It was this warning, and the fact that the storming parties
were furnished with scaling ladders six feet or more too
short l which helped as much as anything to give the victory
to the French veterans on that humiliating day for the allies.
As the men scrambled to the top of the useless ladders in the
dim light of early morning, they were met by a devastating
storm of shot, stones, and blazing pitch. Even the Scots-
women of the town — "the Frenchmen's harlots" as they
were called — joined in the defence, loading the guns, or
carrying scalding water to the battlements. " The dying
Mary of Lorraine," writes Froude in describing the scene
in one of his most eloquent — but surely misleading — passages,
" had been carried from her bed to the walls of the Castle
[Edinburgh] to watch the fight. As the sun rose out of the
Forth, she saw the English columns surge like the sea waves
against the granite ramparts, and like the sea waves fall
shattered into spray." Froude's picture is doubtless drawn
from Knox's incredible account of this alleged incident, but
it has been pointed out that dropsy, in the case of the dying
Queen Regent, had probably affected her eyesight so seriously
that she would be able to distinguish little or nothing across
1 Hatfield MSS., Vol. I., p. 219.
n8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
the two miles which lay between the walls of Edinburgh
Castle and the ramparts at Leith. Lord Grey broke the
unwelcome news to Norfolk in a joint letter signed also by
Lord Henry Scrope, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir James Croft and
Sir George Howard :
LORD GREY, &c. TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
LEITH CAMP, May 7, 1560.
We should be glad to advertise you of good
success : but such as it is, your grace must needs
understand it. Yesterday, devising all possible ways
and means to achieve the enterprise, according to
your grace's often advertisement, we caused the
ordnance officers to make two breaches, one on the
west side of the town, on both sides of the river
which is impaled ; the other on the bulwark of the
church on the south-west side, and the curtain of
same : their pieces being planted the night before.
Both breaches being made, though not so well as we
would have wished it, we ordered the assault as
your grace shall see by the enclosed writing. This
morning before day we had our men in the field, and
at daybreak attempted assault, and if they had kept
order and valiantly gone to it, surely the town had
been won. But by their disorder and cowardice, for
indeed (except the small number of the Berwick
bands) they are but raw soldiers, without skill for
such hot work as appertains to a well manned and
defended town like Leith, we were repulsed with
heavy loss, the number we cannot presently advertise
— but we think we have 1,000 hurt and slain. We
shall not be able to maintain more assaults, seeing
our small power — but we think we can keep the field.
As our chief leaders and best soldiers are slain and
hurt, we find ourselves in very ill case, and beseech
your grace's direction in that behalf. Our men are
much wearied and toiled with watch and ward,
which we are forced to make very strong to guard
our ordnance and trenches ; and we would fain
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 119
have a greater power of Englishmen if possible, for
there is no trust to be given to the Scots. Our
powder and munition are greatly wasted, and our store
of sheaf arrows wholly spent. While sorry we have
no better news, yet comfort ourselves that we have
done, and shall do, our utmost duty, and are not the
first that have been repulsed at an assault.
The English army had a thankless task from the first.
It was not only suspected in the field, but the citizens of
Edinburgh displayed little of the milk of human kindness
even for the wounded after this repulse. " We are so
well esteemed here," wrote Sir George Howard to Norfolk
on the day of defeat, " that all our poor hurt men are
fain to lie in the streets, and can get no house room for
money. Horse-meat is so dear that our soldiers cannot live
on their wages." 1 Elizabeth was full of wrath when news of
the disaster first reached her ears, as the long-suffering Cecil
found to his cost :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR NICHOLAS
THROCKMORTON.
[Forbe's " Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth"}
WESTMINSTER, May 13, 1560.
. . . God trieth us with many difficulties. The
Queen's Majesty never liked this matter of Scotland.
You know what hangeth thereupon : weak-hearted
men and flatterers will follow that way. And now,
when we look for best fortune, the worst comes.
Upon Tuesday the yth of this month, our men offered
an assault to Leith ; and being not assaultable, they
were repulsed with the loss of a thousand men : never
a captain was slain, nor any of any value, but officers
and sergeants of bands. My Lord Grey is over
doubtful. My Lord of Norfolk hath sent a supply,
and like a prince of great honour and wisdom
mindeth the reinforcement. The Queen's Majesty
also mindeth the achieving of this matter so
earnestly as nothing shall be spared. Order is given
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 398.
120 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
to send both men, money and artillery with all pos-
sible speed. I have had such a torment herein with
the Queen's Majesty as an ague hath not in five fits
so much abated.
It only needed this set-back to fill Elizabeth with
enthusiasm for the Scottish cause. Sir Peter Carew was
at once dispatched to find out on the spot the true reason
for the failure, the exact number of Scots and English slain,
and " to assure the lords of Scotland the Queen will never
give up this enterprise till she has this revenged, and that
land set at liberty." To the Duke of Norfolk the Queen
wrote in similar comforting strains :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE DUKE OF NORFOLK.
[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."]
May n, 1560.
Right trusty and right well-beloved Cousin, we
greet you well. By the Lord Grey's letters of the
7th hereof, we perceive that on Tuesday last an
assault was given to Leith, wherein, by means of
disorder, our men had a repulse ; and that as it
seemeth the place was not assaultable there was not
any second assault given ; nor, as we can understand,
the Lord Grey will not, with the number which he
hath, venture to give another assault, but will keep
the field and siege. We be sorry to see that the
success was no better, but considering the importance
of the matter will neither suffer delay, nor retire, but
that the enterprise must needs be achieved, for the
honour and surety of our realm and ourselves, we
mean further so to reinforce this matter with all
manner of things lacking that it shall not by God's
grace be left undone. And, therefore, where you
have taken order to levy within your Lieutenancy
two thousand new men, we mean also to send with
all speed two thousand more, out of the shires that
lie next to your Lieutenancy. And we would that
you should presently recomfort our army in Scotland
with assurance of a speedy reinforcement ; and to let
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 121
them know that there shall lack nothing that may
accomplish the enterprise ; but that yourself will
rather come in person with a main power, than it
should not be speedily accomplished to our honour.
Writing to Cecil on the same day (May n) Lord Grey
declared that the number defeated at the repulse was
" nothing so much as bruited, but our men continually run
away to England, both by sea and land."1 Sir Peter Carew's
statement to the Queen certifies that only about 120 were
slain, " whereof a third were Scots. All agree," he added,
" that the battery prevaileth not, and that the only way to
win is by sap or famine." 2 He also confirmed suspicions
already aroused that the Queen was being " marvellously
robbed," in the Anglo-Scottish camp, where the monthly
charge of the whole army amounted to £20,000, thousands
of men being charged for who were not serving in the camp.
Sir James Croft, the Governor of Berwick, was accused by
Norfolk of being one of the chief offenders in this respect, in
addition to discouraging English friends in Scotland, and
wholly neglecting his duty on the day of the great assault.
" I thought a man could not have gone nigher a traitor, and
have missed, than Sir James Croft," wrote the Duke to
Cecil, who was then himself in Scotland, dispatched to the
theatre of war with Dr. Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canter-
bury, in order to see what diplomacy could do on the spot
to bring the war to an end. It was reported that the Queen
Regent's life was hanging by a thread ; that the besieged
town, now that English reinforcements had reached it, and
made a closer investment possible, was running perilously
short of food ; and that the French garrison had little hope
of help arriving before August — and then only in the
problematical event of Philip of Spain's assistance. The
time was ripe, therefore, for fresh negotiations with the
French Commissioners, who included the Bishops of
Valence and Amiens, M. de Randan, M. la Brosse, and
M. D'Oyssel. " I expect they will do no more than
hitherto," wrote Quadra suspiciously on June 3,3 " as the
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 404.
2 Hatfield MSS., Part I., p. 227.
8 Spanish Calendar.
122 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Queen expects to reduce Leith by hunger, and the French
are not in earnest, but hope to arrange with the rebels,
and then try their designs on this country." The Venetian
Ambassadors in France were nearer the truth when, towards
the close of the following letter, they suggested that the
increasing unrest throughout Christendom would compel
France to accept any fair adjustment of her affairs in Scot-
land. Thirty thousand Huguenots were expected to rise in
the spreading revolt in her own country, where the Guises
went daily in fear of their lives. Spain, too, had just suffered
a crushing defeat in the Mediterranean at the hands of the
Turks, and there was no chance now of a Spanish fleet
arriving in the Forth to help the beleaguered Frenchmen :
THE VENETIAN AMBASSADORS IN FRANCE TO THE
DOGE AND SENATE.
[Venetian Calendar: Vol. VII.]
RAMORANTIN, June 3, 1560.
To-day, when discoursing with the Cardinal of
Lorraine about these affairs of England and Scotland,
and on our asking what news had been brought by a
gentleman who arrived thence yesterday, his Right
Reverend Lordship announced the presence in Eng-
land of M. de Randan, who had arranged a
conference on the 5th instant to be held on the
frontiers between the Queen's ministers and those of
the most Christian King, which was to be attended
by the Scottish chiefs, to negotiate an adjustment, for
which purpose each side had named five individuals,
the English delegates having already left London for
the site of the conference. The Cardinal added that
the most Christian King, for the sake of avoiding
delay and impediments to the adjustment, had not
chosen to give any further instruction to M. de
Randan about its conditions, referring them abso-
lutely to the will of the Queen Regent in Scotland,
who might according to her opinion conclude any
treaty whatever, which would be approved and ratified
without contradiction by his most Christian Majesty
and the Queen his consort.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 123
Concerning Little Leith the Cardinal said that a
yeoman of the chamber in the service of his most
Christian Majesty, who departed thence on the gth
ultimo, and came hither by way of Flanders, related
that the English troops had three times assaulted the
place, twice by day and once by night, with scaling
ladders, and that they had on each occasion been
repulsed with much loss, more than six hundred of
them having been killed the first time, so that now
the remainder of the English do not exceed from 3,000
to 4,000, the Scots being rather more in number.
Having seen that cannonading and assaults were
fruitless, and having withdrawn the artillery, they
commenced raising forts about the place to besiege it,
as was done at La Mirandola, but the French com-
manders, as they assured his Majesty that they were
not in the least afraid of being stormed, so with
regard to siege they sent to say they were provisioned
for the whole of July ; the Cardinal adding his belief
that they were victualled for a still longer period. He
said that the Scots began to have greater suspicion
and anxiety about the English, mutual distrust exist-
ing more openly between them than they had about
the French ; wherefore the Queen of England did not
cease arming to the utmost by land and sea, having
detained a great number of ships, both of Venetians
and other foreigners and of the kingdom, that she
may increase as much as possible her fleet now at sea,
impresvsing men by force on board, her object being to
fight the French fleet and prevent its landing rein-
forcements in Scotland, should the war continue. It
is also that the said Queen has given a subsidy to the
Duke of Holstein,1 brother of the King of Denmark,
who has been in England for many months, for 7,000
foot and 1,000 German horse, who are already
mustered for the service of the said Queen ; and she
has taken till the 1st of July either to dismiss them
1 The Foreign Calendar shows that he was in London on April 9,
1560, that the Queen made him a K.G. at Greenwich on June 20,
and that he left England on June 28.
124 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
entirely or to send the supplement of their pay so as
to remove and embark them for England, hoping that
by that date the conclusion or rejection of the
agreement will have been accomplished.
I hear on good authority that the French Ministry
suspect that in addition to these preparations the
movements heard of in Germany are perhaps not for
the affairs of Metz, the Cardinal himself having told
me that not only the Emperor but almost all the
Princes were arming, naming to us the Count Palatine,
the Duke of Wiirtemburg, the Duke of Bavaria, the
Duke of Saxony, and others. Hence France is
expected to consent to any fair adjustment of the
affairs of Scotland and England.
The English case is stated by Cecil and Wotton in the
letter which they sent from Newcastle, explaining to the
Privy Council the objects of their journey :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL AND NICHOLAS WOTTON TO
THE PRIVY COUNCIL.
[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."]
NEWCASTLE, June n, 1560.
Your Lordships shall perceive by the Queen's
Majesty's letters, that now we be all going into
Scotland, and besides divers other causes, two
principally move us to accord thereunto ; the one
is the danger of the Queen's life, and the discourage
in the town, shall rather provoke the Ambassadors to
be more ready to accord : the other is, we see that
without being nigh the place we shall not without loss
of much time come to an end. We trust on Saturday
to be at Edinburgh, and on Sunday in the afternoon,
and Monday in the forenoon to enter into substantial
talk. The supply of the southern men cometh very
slowly, although, as we hear by report, marvellously
chargeable to the people by new devices in arraying
of the soldiers. We look hourly to hear of the state
of the Queen Dowager. On Saturday she was, we
hear, speechless. The report is that the town is
much destitute of victuals, but until we know the
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 125
truth more certainly, we will not affirm it, for some
suspicion that we have of the contrary. True it is
that D'Oyssel offered to Sir Henry Percy1 to have
some communication, being afraid of the Lord Grey's
cruelty.
We think it were not amiss to let it be understood
to the King Catholic's ministers that we be entered
into a very good way towards accord, and that we
find things not so hard to accord as was doubted
upon ; and by this means it shall be reason that the
King of Spain be neither at cost of sending his ships
nor at pain to name umpires. And so we leave your
good Lordships.
Postscript. — Your Lordships shall perceive by my
good Lord of Norfolk's letter that he is advertised ot
the Queen Dowager's death. Hereupon will follow
sundry alterations. If the French return now with-
out following their commission, although we will pro-
voke them to continue, what shall we do ? If they
require the presence of some of their colleagues in the
town we will not allow it without your order. It
they require assistance of other Scotsmen, that
were French, which we think not unreasonable,
although we think none will be so bold, what shall
we do ? Of these things we beseech your Lordships
to think and to advertise us of the Queen's Majesty's
pleasure.
Your Lordships humbly at command,
W. CECIL, N. WOTTON.
The passing of Mary of Guise broke the back of the
French defence at Leith. How bravely the Regent held
out has already been shown, and the last scene of all —
her dying farewell to her rebellious nobles — is one of the
familiar, as well as one of the most moving incidents in
Scottish history. " There was none of so hard a heart or
stout a stomach, or adamant a heart " in all the grievous
company summoned to her deathbed, wrote Lesley, " but was
1 Brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and afterwards his
successor, who commanded the English cavalry in Scotland.
126 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
moved to tears." " Your serenity may imagine the regret
of these Guise Lords, her Majesty's brothers," remarked
Giovanni Michel, in describing the reception of the news in
France, " as well as of the most Christian Queen, who loved
her mother incredibly, and much more than daughters
usually love their mothers."1 In another letter the same
Ambassador relates how the news was concealed from Mary
Stuart for more than a week, and how when at length it was
broken to her by the Cardinal of Lorraine, " her Majesty
showed and still shows such signs of grief that during the
greater part of yesterday she passed from one agony to
another."
Cecil did not fail to make full use of the advantage which
this new turn of events gave him and his colleagues over the
French Commissioners in the peace negotiations, though
there was endless wrangling with them over the final details.
" We departed from Berwick on Saturday so late by
quarrelling and spending of time with the French about
those articles," he wrote with Wotton on June 19, in describ-
ing the progress of the conference, "that some of us were
constrained to lie that night in our clothes." 2 Cecil's
policy is disclosed in his next letter, which also shows,
towards the end, on what familiar terms he could address
her Majesty on the delicate subject of a husband :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Wright's ''Elizabeth and her Times"]
EDINBURGH, June 21, 1560.
It may please your most excellent Majesty, since
our common letters of the igth, wherein we declared
how far we had proceeded to that time, we find that
this abstinence hath done us much good divers ways.
The strength of the town hath been quietly and truly
viewed ; there hath been also means used to draw
some special men out of the town from the French ;
and at this present I perceive the men of war make
little doubt of winning the town, having the army
1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 228 — 9.
2 Haynes' Burghley Papers.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 127
here to besiege it. Nevertheless, I and Mr. Wotton
take another way, and mean to obtain that by treaty
with a peace to follow that others would by loss of
blood, with a war to follow. We doubt not but to
obtain all reasonable things saving surety towards both
these realms, and such is the case being betwixt a
Prince and subjects, as we know not how to provide
for surety of subjects against all adventures, without
such dishonour to the Prince as neither will be
granted, nor can be reasonably demanded for subjects.
I assure your Majesty, these cases be marvellous
difficult to resolve, and yet considering I know the
French malice, and am wholly addicted to your
Majesty's honour and surety, I would not yield so
much to the French Queen's honour in behalf of her
subjects, if your coffers were full to maintain but one
year's war, such would be your honour, conquest, and
surety. Our greatest difficulties at this present will
stand upon the continuance of the league betwixt
your Majesty and this realm, wherein I find the
Scots so peremptory that they will stand fast thereto
that they will never accord to break it of their part.
Within two days it will appear what shall ensue
thereof, for I see the French be as peremptory, so
that except the moderation come of our part, I see no
hope of accord. Thus much I am bold to trouble
your Majesty in this matter. I understand by Mr.
Petre's letters,1 that your Majesty would have me
consider the advertisements out of France brought by
Mr. Jones, wherein I am to seek what to write, for I
think they be such things as are brought to your
Ambassador to content him, but how certain they be
I know not, and upon uncertainties I connot advise
any certain counsel. I think surely France is dis-
turbed,2 but I see no likelihood of continuance ....
The offer made of certain towns in Brittany and
Normandy liketh me well, and the same would be so
1 Sir William Petre, Chancellor of the Garter, and a principal
Secretary of State during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
Mary and Elizabeth. He died in 1571.
2 Alluding to the religious troubles in France.
128 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
allowed, but I cannot give your Majesty counsel to
embrace things so far off. No strength is tenable
that is far distant, neither behoveth it that the crown
of England should enter into war without surety of
all Britain. Profitable it is for time to divert the
enemy by procuring him business at home.
If it should not please God to give us His grace to
make a peace presently, (whereof I would be sorry),
there be many ways to offend your enemy withal, with-
out great charge, whereof I will forbear now to write,
because I do bend myself to peace. This afternoon,
Mr. Wotton and I should have heard the French and
Scots' artillery, I should say articles of their treaty,
but they be so long in planting that I think it will be
to-morrow in the morning before the battery will
shoot off. The French seek all the ways they can to
put a jealousy in the Scots of us, so as we see what
they shoot at ; wherein if there were not more trust
that the matters would keep them asunder and us
together, than in any certainty of the nation of Scot-
land, I would fear more than I do. But surely the
hatred to the French is such, and the causes so many,
the benevolence at this time towards England is so
great, and with such desert, that I see not that in
long time the French shall recover the mind of Scots-
men against us as in times past hath been. Since
the Queen's death, here be none that dare openly
show favour to the French. The bishops that be
most offended, dare not show any countenance to
these men, nor dare come out of the castle for hatred
of the common people. We did offer to the Arch-
bishop of St. Andrews,1 a guard to come to the
Ambassador's, but he durst not, and so the French
Ambassador went into the castle to him and others.
I will no more molest your Majesty, but use my
continual prayer that God would direct your heart to
procure a father for your children, and so shall the
children of all your realm bless your seed. Neither
1 John Hamilton, natural son of James Hamilton, first Earl of
Arran, who had been made Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1546.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 129
peace nor war without this will profit us long.
Which, in the name of God (I am now a preacher), I
humbly beseech your Majesty to consider earnestly,
for otherwise surely God will require a sharp account
at your hand, for your time lost, and the danger of
bloodshed of your miserable people. I trust of your
Majesty's pardon.
Your Majesty's humble subject and unworthy
servant.
W. CECIL.
The history of the protracted negotiations is recorded by
the Commissioners at great length in their subsequent corre-
spondence, printed in extenso in the " Burghley Papers," but
too tedious to follow here. Suffice it to say that the Treaty
of Edinburgh, which was signed on July 6, was a victory for
the English and Scots on almost every point in dispute.
Cecil and Wotton, highly delighted, sent Elizabeth the fol-
lowing letter on the proclamation of the peace two days later :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL AND DR. NICHOLAS WOTTON
TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Haynes' "Burghley Papers"}
EDINBURGH, July 8, 1560.
It may please your Majesty, yesterday the peace
was here proclaimed, first in the town of Leith, in the
presence of certain gentlemen of England, and next in
the camp, in the presence of certain of the French.
It seemeth surely very welcome to all parts. This
day the artillery on both sides is withdrawing to
places whence it shall be carried to-morrow to be
embarked, and we herein employ ourselves to make
all the haste that can be possible. As yet we cannot
certainly understand the state of the town, otherwise
than thus : The number appear to be many, and those
which be seen are, for all their scarcity of victual,
looking very well, and all very well armed. The
French demanded yesterday shipping for fourthousand
persons, and we think they be not under three thou-
sand soldiers, which, in all men's judgment, had been
E.M.S. K
130 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
able to have encountered a great number ; and, if they
had stood to it, should have been the occasion of the
shedding of a great deal of blood, which is now well
saved. As for the substance of our accord, your
Majesty shall please to understand that it consisteth
in these points :
First. — A reconciliation made, and the Treaty of
Cateau Cambresis reduced to its former strength.
Next, all the men-of-war to be removed, saving sixty
in the isle here, which indeed serveth to no purpose,
and so the French do see and confess ; and sixty in
Dunbar, whose new fortification shall be also, before
your army depart out of Scotland, demolished. This
town of Leith shall also be fully demolished.
Item. — All hostile preparation shall cease on both
parts, and no ship shall be transported with men-of-
war, or any warly apparel, out of France, or any
other place, by consent of the French, into England,
Scotland, or Ireland, nor any from England or Ireland
into France.
Next to this, your Majesty's undoubted right to the
Crown of England and Ireland is fully confessed and
acknowledged, with a certain declaration that no
person may use the style or arms thereof but your
Majesty only ; and thereupon followeth the part for
the redress and reformation of all things anywise done
to the contrary, both in France and Scotland.
And where we persisted in demand of Calais, and
five hundred thousand crowns for a recompense, the
same, as touching the recompense, is referred to a
new Treaty to be had betwixt us at London ; and if it
be not ended by us within three months, then it is
referred to King Philip for a twelvemonth, and if he
end it not, your right and demand for the recompense
is referred to your Majesty.
Next to this followeth the covenant to your Majesty
for observing of the Treaty now accorded betwixt the
French and the Scots ; which article was as hardly
obtained as any, and next to it, the recognition of your
Majesty's right to the Crown.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 131
After this, doth follow ordinary articles for observa-
tion and confirmation of this Treaty. And this is the
sum of our Treaty, which, with the accord of Scotland,
hath spent us sixteen days, that is from the i6th of
June to the third of July, and of that time three
parts hath been spent in according of the matters of
Scotland.
Then follows a detailed list of the clauses in the separate
Treaty with Scotland, by which France, among other con-
cessions, agreed that all her troops should be withdrawn save
an insignificant handful — 120 all told — to be left under the
control and in the pay of the Scottish nobles ; the rebels were
to be pardoned ; the ordinary offices of the realm were to be
furnished only with Scottish subjects, a Scottish council was
to be appointed for the governance of the country, and the King
and Queen of France were never to make war there with-
out the consent of the three estates. The treaties were only
signed by the Commissioners in the nick of time, for Eliza-
beth, fearful lest the Scots should obtain all the advantages,
sent instructions to Cecil at the last moment that he was in
no wise to abandon the demand for the restitution of Calais,
and the payment of an indemnity for the usurpation of the
English arms. In the event of the French Ambassadors not
acceding thereto he was to break off negotiations. Luckily
this letter did not reach the Secretary's hands until the day
after the Treaty had been signed. His letter in reply shows
how shrewdly he realised the value of this happy mishap :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Froude's "History of England."]
EDINBURGH, July 9, 1560.
It may please your Majesty ; the sight of your most
gracious letter written with your own blessed hands,
before I had deciphered it, raised me up in such
height of comfort that after I perceived the sense
thereof my fall was greater into the deep dungeon of
sorrow than ever I thought any letter of your Majesty's
should have thrown me. And yet after a season
gathering my astonished spirits together, I am risen
K 2
132 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
into this opinion and comfort of your Majesty's accus-
tomed goodness towards me, and of my own clearness
of mind and soul, that when it shall appear by our
letters sent from hence the 6th of this month how
far we were proceeded, and that also it shall be well
weighed in all parts how honourable and necessary
this peace is, and how it could not be made any other
way, your Majesty will not only take and allow our
doings, but will think it a good luck that we had not
these your letters before our conclusion ; for so had
no peace at all been gotten. For breaking off upon
the matter of Calais, the French ambassadors would
have departed and my Lord of Norfolk should have
entered ; whereupon must within ten days have hap-
pened one of these three things — either the loss ot
the town, and a perpetual dishonour of the realm — or
a winning of it by assault, to the effusion of a great
deal of Christian blood — or a taking of it by com-
position— by any of which three ways wars still should
have remained ; and then by what means Calais could
have been obtained, I see not ; nor by what means
this manner of peace would have hereafter been
obtained, I neither see, nor can consider.
As for the message brought by Tremayne,1 God
forbid that your Majesty should enter into that
bottomless pit of expense of your force and treasure,
within the French King's own mainland — being that
manner of war to you more troublesome and danger-
ous than this of the French King here in Scotland ;
and yet this is his advantage, that the obedience of
this is due to his wife and cannot be lost ; and there
your Majesty should have no more to further you but
a devotion popular upon opinions of religion ; wherein
the French King, rather than lose that country, would
not stick to incline to his people's request, and so
your Majesty's purpose could not then last.
Indeed this I could and meant always to have
1 There were two Tremaynes, one of whom was with the army at
Leith. Both had been employed in carrying messages between the
Prince of Conde, the Admiral Chatillon, and Elizabeth. — Froude.
THE SIEGE OF LEITH 133
allowed, that if ye could not come to a reasonable
accord with France, but that they would continue
wars, then your Majesty should have entertained that
matter of Brittany and Normandy — to have therewith
offended and annoyed the French King. But as to
have taken and kept any piece there, experience of
Boulogne being in sight of Dover teacheth us what
to do ; and when I consider that for charges neither
is Portsmouth your own haven fortified, neither the
town of Berwick — most necessary of all others —
finished ; I should think it strange to take Brest or
any other town in those parts to keep longer than of
necessity the French would maintain wars against
your Majesty; which being now ceased, and to your
great honour, I think it a happy mishap that your
Majesty's letter came not before our conclusion. In
which my opinion I most humbly beseech your
Majesty to pardon me, submitting myself to your
Majesty's reformation as becometh me.
The Spanish Ambassador had little faith in the value of
the Treaty as a binding or permanent agreement. " In my
opinion" he wrote to Philip,1 " the French ^are dissatisfied,
and the Queen displeased, and it may be feared that on the
two points of the renovation of the league with the Scots,
and the indemnity she claims of the French, affairs may
again become embroiled, unless indeed the displeasure and
grievance they both feel against your Majesty may lead them
to think of something worse. I say nothing of French affairs,
as your Majesty understands them better than I, although I
do not like what I see of these ministers here ; but, as regards
this Queen, I can assure your Majesty she is so angry and
offended at the thought that not only would you not help
her, but had offered to aid her enemies, that it is to be feared
that she will do all the harm she has strength to do. M. de.
Glajon is aware how inconsiderately she one day showed
her ill-feeling to him and me, saying that your Majesty was
her secret enemy, and Glajon also knows how these people
regard us, although the Queen uses extreme artfulness in
1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 109.
134 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
trying to make me believe she is devoted to your Majesty."
The French rulers were so dissatisfied that they were, in point
of fact, determined to repudiate the agreement made by their
Commissioners, who had pointed out how helpless they had
been in the matter. It was their only means, they protested,
of saving their four thousand gallant countrymen, whose
lives were at stake. Afterwards they gave the Spanish
Ambassador in London many reasons why the French King
was not bound to agree to offensive clauses in the Treaty.
" The first is that, as they were prisoners under guard all the
time they were in Scotlend settling the terms of peace, and
were not allowed to speak a word to the Scots or anybody
else, they negotiated as prisoners, and are not now bound by
anything they agreed to under duress. ... It seems to me "
added Quadra, " that they still hope to pacify the Scots and
calm their distrust and suspicion, in which case this Queen
would be finely outwitted; and would see her folly in inter-
fering in what does not concern her instead of looking to her
own safety. She is not so gay as usual lately, and is very
suspicious since the French Commissioners spoke to her."1
The clauses which Mary Stuart most strongly resented were
those which renounced her claim to the English throne by
abstaining henceforth from bearing the arms of England and
Ireland.
Humiliated by the terms of peace, and incensed by the
religious revolution brought about by the Scottish Parlia-
ment, which, having assembled in the following August,
abolished the Mass and Papal jurisdiction — adopting instead
the Calvinistic Confession of Faith — both Francis II. and
his consort refused to ratify the Treaty. They were power-
less, however, to prevent either the re-establishment of peace
or the whole affairs of Scotland from falling into the hands
of the Lords of the Congregation. The Treaty of Edinburgh
not only ended the first bout between the rival Queens of
England and Scotland, with a victory for Elizabeth greater
than she realised at the time, but also sounded the death
knell of French supremacy in Scotland, just as Elizabeth's
accession two years previously had saved the English nation
" body and soul," from the clutches of Spain.
1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 172.
CHAPTER IV
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART
Dudley's Ambitious Designs — Arran's Suit Revived — A Crowd of
Rivals — The Tragedy of Amy Robsart — Quadra's Account —
Objections to it — Dudley sends Thomas Blount to Investigate
— Inquest and Verdict — Dudley Disgraced but Restored to
Favour — Public Opinion — Throckmorton Warns Elizabeth —
Mary Stuart on her Scottish Subjects — Why she Refused to
Ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh — Her claim to the English
Arms — Death of Francis II. — The Grief-stricken Queen —
Elizabeth's Opportunity — Throckmorton Told to Mind his Own
Business — Dudley's Marriage with Elizabeth Seriously Discussed
— Philip's Half-hearted Support — Elizabeth Declines to Receive
the Papal Envoy — A Venetian's Portrait of Elizabeth in her
Prime — His Picture of her England.
THE patched-up peace again brought to the front the
insoluble problem of Elizabeth's marriage, as Cecil found
upon returning from his arduous and thankless task in
Scotland. Dudley had taken advantage of his absence, as
well as of that of his more out-spoken opponent, the Duke
of Norfolk, so to strengthen his influence over the Queen,
and his own position at Court, as to render faithful service
well-nigh impossible. Instead of gratitude for what he had
reason to regard as a great diplomatic triumph Cecil found
himself discredited and abused. To his friends he spoke
seriously of retiring into private life. Winchester, the Lord
Treasurer, fully sympathised with him in a letter during the
Queen's absence on August 24. "All good Councillors," he
wrote, " shall have labour and dolour without reward : wherein
your part is most of all men's, for your charge and pains be
above all others, and your thanks and rewards less, and worse
considered .... When your counsel is most for her
Majesty's honour and profit, the same hath got most
hindrance by her weak credit of you, and by back counsels ;
and so long as that manner continue it must needs be danger-
ous service and unthankful. Nevertheless, my opinion to
you is to bear as you have been, till her Grace returns, and
136 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
then I shall play the part of a good servant, and do without
fear."1 Happily for England, as will presently be seen, a
tragic stroke of fortune was about to happen which restored
Cecil to favour, and he remained at his post as helmsman of
the ship of State, which would have fared badly indeed in that
storm-tossed sea had Elizabeth been left to steer it alone. On
the Queen's behalf it may fairly be pleaded that the eternal
marriage question, and the ceaseless round of unwelcome
wooers, were, in the nature of things, enough to irritate a temper
far more placid than that which Henry VI 1 1. had handed down
to her. Dudley made it easier for her than all the rest to
enjoy the present, and let the matrimonial prospects take
care of themselves. Quadra still kept the Archduke in the
running in spite of her obvious insincerity. When he
referred to him again shortly before the Treaty of Edinburgh
was signed, she " talked all manner of nonsense, as usual,
but I told her," as he informed Philip at the time, " that I
knew she did not believe what she was saying, and I was
fully informed that her real object was to make herself
Monarch of all Britain by marrying the Earl of Arran." 2
Quadra was not the only one to pester her by reviving the
question of that impossible match. The Scottish lords took
up the matter so seriously that they sent a formal proposal
for her hand on Arran's behalf, taking the precaution at the
same time to notify the fact to the King of France :
THE SCOTTISH LORDS OF THE CONGREGATION
TO FRANCIS II.
[Teulet: " Papiers d'£tat relatifs a rhistoire d'£cosse."]
EDINBURGH, August 31, 1560.
Sire,
Having regard to the condition of the realm of
England, which is so nearly our neighbour, and also
of its Queen, who has yet to marry and is earnestly
solicited from all parts of Christendom, it seems to
us, not less for your Majesty's interest than for ours,
a matter which is worthy of consideration by the
Parliament. It would be too great a danger to us,
1 Haynes' Burghley Papers, p. 361.
a Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, p. 159.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 137
and a very injurious matter to your Majesty, if she
engaged to marry any prince who was not a well-
tried friend or ally of your crown. This consideration
has moved us to consider whether it would be possible
for us to make such representations to her that she
might content herself with one of your subjects, by
which means we should remove this peril from us,
and also do you a welcome service. By this course
you would be assured of the good friendship of
England ; but on the contrary, if she should happen
to choose another, it might disturb or, at least,
diminish it. With respect to this we have resolved
to send there expressly to solicit her, if it be possible,
to take in marriage the Earl of Arran. Not only is
he nearly related to the Queen our Sovereign, but
he is very desirous to do his humble duty unto your
Majesty at all times, because of the home he has had
in France from his infancy. We leave it to your
Majesty to consider the great comfort which would
ensue, as much to your Majesty as to your kingdom,
if, by your means, he could attain so great an honour.
And on this, we very humbly entreat your Majesty
that it may please you to instruct your Ambassador
in residence at the Court of the said Lady to assist
with his help and counsel those who are going to do
their part there, and to advance the cause of his
credit and authority as much as he can ; which we
have no doubt will be of much service. We are
sending them in the greatest haste, because it has
been reported to us that the Prince of Sweden is to
be in England shortly for the same purpose, and it
would hamper us to have a neighbour so great as
he would be if he could combine the strength of
England with his own. On this account we are of
opinion that we must take time by the forelock, and
we do not doubt that your Majesty, for love of your
country and subjects, will also take this consideration
in good part. And on this, Sire, after the very
humble acknowledgment of our service and lawful
obedience to your Majesty, we pray the Almighty
138 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
God that He may have you in His holy and gracious
keeping.
The deputation to Elizabeth herself consisted of the Earls
of Morton and Glencairn, and William Maitland of Lethington,
the last of whom had quitted the service of Mary of Guise
for that of her rebellious lords — realising the increasing danger
of French predominance — and had recently played a large
share in persuading the lords to sign the treaty of Edin-
burgh. Elizabeth assured the deputation that Scotland might
count on her aid in all future crises which they might be
called upon to face ; but with regard to marriage she regretted
that she was unable to accede to their request. This, how-
ever, she did in terms full of friendship for the Scottish nation,
and respect for the Earl of Arran himself. Other suitors
from abroad, or their Ambassadors, came and went with
tiresome persistency. These for the most part returned
with fair words and handsome presents, for not many of
Elizabeth's lovers were lucky enough to be so definitely
declined as Arran. " The Duke of Holstein," wrote John
Parkhurst to Bullinger of one of these suitors, a nephew of
the King of Denmark, who did not wish his neighbour of
Sweden to capture the same prize, " has returned home
after a magnificent reception from us, with splendid presents
from the Queen, having been elected to the Order of the
Garter, and invested with its golden and jewelled badge.
The Swede is reported to be always coming, and even now
on his journey, and on the eve of landing ; yet, as far as
I can judge, he will not stir a foot."1 That was towards
the end of August, when the Prince of Sweden, now Eric IV.,
was daily expected to plead on his own behalf, where his
young brother, the Duke of Finland, whom we last saw in
the royal gallery with Elizabeth at the tournament described
by Noailles on p. 77, had pleaded for him in vain. Eric
became first favourite among the royal wooers at this period.
He had the reputation of being one of the best-looking men in
Europe, and Elizabeth had not the same hesitation in
accepting the shiploads of presents which he sent as earnest
of his honourable intentions as in promising her hand without
1 Zurich Letters. First Series.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 139
seeing him. The enterprising printers of the day went the
length of publishing prints with portraits of Elizabeth and Eric
united — to the considerable annoyance of the Queen, who had
the portraits confiscated — and great preparations were made
for his arrival, expected towards the end of August, or the
beginning of September. Of this, as well as of one of
Elizabeth's playful moods, we have evidence in the following
letter :
FRANCIS ALEN TO THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY.
[Lodge's " Illustrations of British History."}
September 3, 1560.
The Queen's Highness upon Friday last came to
Windsor ; and, being every hour in a continual
expectation of the King of Sweden's coming, who is
looked for to be shortly here at Westminster ; and
so much the sooner as the works now there in hand
may be finished and brought to any perfection ;
where they work both night and day. It is reported
that against Allhallowtide her Majesty will call a
Parliament, and that her Highness said she would
do so when she was at Winchester. She liked so
well my Lord Treasurer's house, and his great cheer
at Basing, that she openly and merrily bemoaned
him to be so old, " for else, by my troth," said she,
"if my Lord Treasurer1 were a young man, I could
find in my heart to have him to my husband before
any man in England."
My poor wife, your Lordship's gossip, has her
most humbly commended ; and your god-son, Francis,
I thank God, waxes a jolly boy. I beseech God long
preserve your good Lordship.
Your good Lordship's, most bounden to command,
FRANCIS ALEN.
Such was the uncertainty of intelligence in those days
that the King of Sweden, expected hourly in England, had
by that time been driven back to Helsinborg by storms
which nearly shipwrecked him in the Skagger Rack. Eric,
1 The Marquess of Winchester, who was then well over seventy.
140 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
however, assured her Majesty in his letter explaining all the
dangers through which he had passed, that as he had
attempted to reach her through the stormy seas " so would
he at her first summons rush through armies of foes." If
only she would forward a safe conduct, with certain clauses
to the effect that he would not be compelled to agree to
anything, and allowed to leave England when he liked, he
would set out again in the following spring, his captains
telling him that it would not be safe to continue the voyage
that year. He loved her, he declared, better than himself,
and wondered why she tormented him so long. The fault
would not be his if the matter did not come to a good issue."
' No one," he added, "is so stupid as to continue to love
without being loved." 1 It is not difficult to picture Elizabeth
on reading such letters passing them on to her favourite, to
enjoy a joke together at the writer's expense. Dudley,
however, was about to receive a check in his ambitious
career which threatened for a time to prove his entire
undoing. This was nothing less than the tragedy of Amy
Robsart, whose lifeless body, with a broken neck, was found
at the foot of a staircase at Cumnor Hall, near Oxford, on
September 8. Dudley was with the Queen at Windsor at
the time, but popular opinion, always ready to believe the
worst, at once jumped to the conclusion that he had
murdered his wife by proxy, and that Elizabeth was a
willing accessory. There was good excuse for the suppo-
sition, for the sinister rumours that Dudley meant to remove
his wife in order to marry Elizabeth had been public
property for months. That very fact, however, suggests
the improbability of such a clumsy plot. Neither
Elizabeth nor Dudley was thin-skinned or over-scrupulous
in the niceties of honour ; but at the same time they were
not fools ; and to have done the very thing which they
must have known would recoil at once upon their own
heads would surely have been the height of folly. The
following letter, therefore, needs to be read with the utmost
care, for though not so transparently full of misstatements
as Scott's " Kenilworth " — still responsible for an incredible
amount of popular error concerning the whole story — it
1 Foreign Calendar, Vol. III., p. 324.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 141
was apparently written with intent to deceive. Quadra,
according to Throckmorton, who was not easily hood-
winked in such matters, was at this time in the pay of
the Guises, and it was important from their point of view
that Elizabeth should be so discredited that Philip and
the Duchess of Parma would abandon her to her fate ; or
at least enable the Treaty of Edinburgh to be repudiated :
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, September n, 1560.
Since writing, news of importance is current here
which I convey to your Highness. The Queen told
me she was sure the French did not lack the will to
injure her but only the power, and that they (the
French) had not dismissed any of their troops. She
had promised me an answer about the marriage by
the third instant, and said she was certain to marry,
but now she coolly tells me she cannot make up her
mind and will not marry. After this I had an
opportunity of talking to Cecil, who I understood
was in disgrace, and Robert was trying to turn him
out of his place. After exacting many pledges of strict
secrecy, he said the Queen was conducting herself in
such a way that he thought of retiring. He said it
was a bad sailor who did not enter port if he could
when he saw a storm coming on, and he clearly fore-
saw the ruin of the realm through Robert's intimacy
with the Queen, who surrendered all affairs to him
and meant to marry him. He said he did not know
how the country put up with it, and he should ask
leave to go home, although he thought they would
cast him into the Tower first. He ended by
begging me in God's name to point out to the
Queen the effect of her misconduct, and persuade
her not to abandon business entirely but to look to
her realm ; and then he repeated twice over to me
that Lord Robert would be better in Paradise than
here.
142 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
I expressed sorrow at what he said, and reminded
him how earnestly I had always tried to advise the
Queen to act aright and live peacefully and marry.
He knew how little my advice had availed, although
the Queen willingly listened to me. I would not tire
of well-doing however, but would take the first
opportunity of speaking again, although I understood
that it was hopeless to expect a peaceful settlement
of her quarrel with the French. Cecil answered me
in a way that seemed as if he would like to excuse
the French. He said the Queen did not like foreigners,
and thought she could do without them, and that she
had an enormous debt which she would not think of
paying. She had, therefore, lost her credit with the
London merchants.
He ended by saying that Robert was thinking of
killing his wife, who was publicly announced to be
ill, although she was quite well, and would take very
good care they did not poison her. He said surely
God would never allow such a wicked thing to be
done. I ended the conversation by again expressing
my sorrow without saying anything to compromise
me, although I am sure he speaks the truth and is
not acting crookedly. The mishap of the Secretary
must produce great effect, as he has many companions
in discontent, especially the Duke of Norfolk, whom
he mentioned.
The next day the Queen told me as she returned
from hunting that Robert's wife was dead or
nearly so, and asked me not to say anything about
it. Certainly this buiness is most shameful and
scandalous, and withal I am not sure whether she will
marry the man at once or even if she will marry at
all, as I do not think she has her mind sufficiently
fixed. Cecil says she wishes to do as her father
did.
Their quarrels cannot injure public business, as
nobody worse than Cecil can be at the head of affairs,
but the outcome of it all might be the imprisonment
of the Queen and the proclamation of the Earl of
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 143
Huntingdon1 as King. He is a great heretic, and
the French forces might be used for him. Cecil says
he is the real heir of England, and all the heretics
want him. I do not like Cecil's great friendship with
the Bishop of Valence. Perhaps I am too suspicious,
but with these people it is always wisest to think the
worst. The cry is that they do not want any more
women rulers, and this woman may find herself and
her favourite in prison any morning. They would all
confide in me if I mixed myself up in their affairs, but
I have no orders, and am temporising until I receive
your Highness' instructions. Your Highness should
advise the King not to wait until the Queen mends
matters.
Since writing the above I hear the Queen has
published the death of Robert's (wife), and, said in
Italian, " She broke her neck." She must have
fallen down a staircase.
As Dr. Maitland says in referring to this letter in the
" Cambridge Modern History," the sagacity of the man who
wrote it can hardly be saved, except at the expense of his
honesty. " Those who are inclined to place faith in this
wonderful tale about a truly wonderful Cecil will do well to
remember that a postscript is sometimes composed before any
part of the letter is written." Professor Pollard regards
Quadra's remarkable story with the same suspicion, convinced
that the writer intended to convey the impression of Elizabeth
and Dudley's guilt " by a deft economy of dates." The news
of Lady Robert Dudley's death reached Windsor on the gth,
and Quadra's conversation with Cecil and the Queen
probably took place after it was made known — not before, as
he makes out. In any case, Dudley at once realised the
danger of his position, and on the evening of the gth
dispatched his cousin, Thomas Blount, to make full inquiries
on the spot :
1 Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, who had distant
claims to the throne as a descendant of the Dukes of Buckingham
and York.
144 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
LORD ROBERT DUDLEY TO THOMAS BLOUNT.
[Pettigrew's "Inquiry into the death of Amy Robsart."]
WINDSOR, September g, 1550.
Cousin Blount,
Immediately upon your departing from me there
came to me Bowes, by whom I understand that my
wife is dead, and, as he saith, by a fall from a pair ot
stairs : little other understanding can I have of him.
The greatness and the suddenness of the misfortune
doth so perplex me, until I do hear from you how the
matter stands, or how this evil doth light upon me,
considering what the malicious world will bruit, as I
can take no rest. And, because I have no way to
purge myself of the malicious talk that I know the
wicked world will use, but one, which is the very plain
truth to be known, I do pray you, as you have loved
me, and do tender me and my quietness, and as now
my special trust is in you, that will use all devices and
means you possibly can for the learning of the truth,
wherein have no respect to any living person ; and as
by your own travail and diligence, so likewise by order
of law, I mean, by calling of the coroner, and charg-
ing him to the uttermost, from me, to have good
regard to make choice of no light or slight persons,
but the most discreet and substantial men for the
juries ; such as for their knowledge may be able to
search honourably and duly, by all manner of examin-
ations, the bottom of the matter ; and for their
uprightness will earnestly and sincerely deal therein
without respect. And that the body be viewed and
searched accordingly by them, and in every respect
to proceed by order and law. In the meantime,
cousin Blount, let me be advertised from you by this
bearer, with all speed, how the matter doth stand ;
for, as the cause and the manner thereof doth
marvellously trouble me, considering my case many
ways, so shall I not be at rest till I maybe ascertained
thereof; praying you ever, as my trust is in you, and
as I have ever loved you, do not dissemble with me,
neither let anything be hid from me, but send me
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 145
your true conceit and opinion of the matter, whether
it happened by evil chance, or by villainy ; and fail
not to let me hear continually from you. And thus
fare you well in much haste.
Your loving friend and kinsman, much perplexed,
R.D.
I have sent for my brother Appleyard, because he
is her brother, and other of her friends also, to be
there, that they may be privy, and see how all things
do proceed.
Blount lost no time in acting upon these urgent
instructions. Here is his first report :
THOMAS BLOUNT TO SIR ROBERT DUDLEY.
[Pettigrew's "Inquiry into the death of Amy Robsart."]
CUMNOR, September n, 1560.
May it please your lordship to understand that I
have received your letter by Brice, the contents where-
of I do well perceive : and that your lordship was
advertised by Bowes immediately upon my departing
that my lady was dead. And also your straight
charge given unto me, that I should use all the
devices and policies that I can for the true under-
standing of the matter ; as well by mine own travail,
as by the order of the law, as in calling the coroner,
giving him charge that he choose a discreet and
substantial jury for the view of the body, and that no
corruption should be used, or persons respected.
Your lordship's great reasons that maketh you so
earnestly search to learn the truth, the same with
your earnest commandment doth make me to do my
best herein. The present advertisement I can give to
your lordship at this time is, too true it is that my
lady is dead, and, as it seemeth, with a fall, but yet
how, or which way, I cannot learn. Your lordship
shall hear the manner of my proceeding since I came
from you. The same night I came from Windsor, I
lay at Abingdon all that night, and, because I was
E.M.S. L
146 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
desirous to hear what news went abroad in the
county, at my supper I called for mine host, and asked
him what news was there about, taking upon me
that I was going into Gloucestershire. He said,
" there was fallen a great misfortune within three or
four miles of the town." He said, " my Lord Robert
Dudley's wife was dead " ; and I asked how ; and he
said, " by a misfortune, as he heard : by a fall from a
pair of stairs." I asked him by what chance. He
said, " he knew not." I asked him what was his
judgment and the judgment of the people. He said,
" some were disposed to say well, and some evil."
" What is your judgment ? " said I. " By my troth,"
said he, " I judge it a misfortune because it chanced
in that honest gentleman's house. His great honesty,"
said he, " doth much curb the evil thoughts of the
people." " Methinks," said I, " that some of her
people that waited upon her should say somewhat to
this." " No, sir," said he, " but little ; for it was said
that they were here at the fair, and none left with
her." " How might that chance?" said I. Then
said he, "it is said here that she rose that day very
early, and commanded all her sort to go to the fair, and
would suffer none to tarry at home." And thereof is
much judged ; and truly, my lord, I did first learn of
Bowes, as I met with him coming towards your lord-
ship's, of his own being that day, and of all the rest
of them being, who affirmed that she would not that
day suffer one of her own sort to tarry at home ; and
was sp earnest to have them gone to the fair that,
with any of her own sort that made reason for tarry-
ing at home, she was very angry ; and came to Mrs.
Odingsell, the widow, that liveth with Anthony Foster,
who refused that day to go to the fair, and was very
angry with her also, because she said it was no day
for gentlewomen to go in, but said the morrow was
much better, and then she would go ; whereupon my
lady answered and said, "that she might choose and
go at her pleasure, but all hers should go ; " and was
very angry. They asked who should keep her company
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 147
if they all went. She said, " Mrs. Owen should keep
her company at dinner."
The same tale doth Pinto, who doth dearly love
her, confirm. Certainly, my lordship, as little while
as I have been here, I have heard divers tales that
maketh me to judge her a strange woman of mind.
In asking of Pinto what she might think of this
matter, either chance or villainy, she said, " By her
faith, she doth judge it very chance, and neither done
by man nor by herself. For herself," she said, " she
was a good, virtuous gentlewoman, and daily would
pray upon her knees " ; and divers times she saith
that she hath heard her pray to God to deliver her
from desperation. " Then," said I, " she might have
an evil eye in her mind." " No, good Mr. Blount," said
Pinto, " do not judge so of my words ; if you should
so gather I am sorry I said so much."
My lord, it is most strange that this chance should
fall upon you, as it passeth the judgment of any man
to say how it is ; but then the tales I do hear of her
make me to think she had a strange mind, as I will tell
you at my coming. But to the inquest you would
have so very circumspectly chosen by the coroner for
the understanding of the truth, your lordship needeth
not to doubt of their well choosing. Before my
coming, the inquest were chosen, and part of them
at the house. If I be able to judge of men, and of
their ability, I judge them, and specially some of them,
to be as wise and as able men to be chosen on such a
matter as any man, being but countrymen, as ever I
saw, and as well able to answer for their doing before
whomsoever they shall be called, and for their true
search without respect of persons. I have done your
message unto them, and I have good hope they will
conceal no fault, if any be ; for as they are wise, so
are they, as I hear, part of them very enemies to
Anthony Foster. God give them, in their wisdom,
indifference, and then be they well chosen men. More
advertisement at this time I cannot give your lord-
ship ; but as I can learn, so will I advertise, wishing
L 2
148 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
your lordship to put away sorrow, and rejoice, what-
soever fall out, of your own innocency ; by the which, in
time, doubt not but that malicious reports shall turn
upon their back that can be glad to wish or say
against you. And thus I humbly take my leave.
Your lordship's life and loving
T.B.
Your lordship hath done very well in sending for
Mr. Appleyard.
Obviously the case looked black against the Queen's
favourite with so many evil thoughts at work. The Queen
herself deemed it necessary to rusticate him. To what
extent he was kept in bondage is not clear from his following
letter to Cecil, who appears to have heaped coals of fire on
Lord Robert's head at this crisis in his affairs. It is also
arguable, of course, that Cecil was convinced of Dudley's
innocence, and was merely eager to be on the safe side in
the event of his attaining, in due course, the height of his
ambition, now that the way lay clear before him :
LORD ROBERT DUDLEY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Haynes' " Burghley Papers."]
September, 1560.
Sir,
I thank you much for your being here, and the
great friendship you have shown towards me I shall
not forget. I am very loath to wish you here again,
but I would be very glad to be with you there. I
pray you let me hear from you, what you think best
for me to do. If you doubt, I pray you ask the
question, for the sooner you can advise me thither,
the more I shall thank you. I am sorry so sudden a
chance should breed me so great a change, for
methinks I am here all this while as it were in a
dream, and too far, too far, from the place I am
bound to be ; where, methinks also, this long idle
time cannot excuse me for the duty I have to dis-
charge elsewhere. I pray you help him that sues to
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 149
be at liberty out of so great a bondage. Forget me
not, though you see me not, and I will remember you,
and fail you not ; and so wish you well to do. In
haste this morning.
I beseech you Sir, forget not to offer up the humble
sacrifice you promised me.
Your very assured,
R. DUDLEY.
There is a ring of sincerity about that letter which hardly
lends itself to the theory of connivance on Elizabeth's part.
Possibly, also, his " bondage " explains why Dudley did not
himself proceed to Cumnor Hall, where, plainly, he had so
many duties to discharge ; but his enemies infer from it that
all the time it was the Court alone which he had in mind.
The truth will never be known, either regarding this point,
or the real cause of Lady Robert's tragic death. None of
the witnesses gave any evidence to prove how she came by
her mysterious fall downstairs, and after a full inquiry the
only verdict possible was one of accidental death, for that, in
point of fact, was what the verdict amounted to. Seven
years later Amy's half-brother, John Appleyard — mentioned
in the correspondence between Dudley and Blount — revived
the tragedy by accusing Dudley of shielding his steward,
Anthony Foster, whom rumour had charged with the
murder. Appleyard had blurted out that " though he did
take the Lord Robert to be innocent thereof, yet he thought
it an easy matter to find out the offenders." Dudley, how-
ever, had always answered him " it was not fit to deal any
further in the matter, considering that by order of law it was
already found otherwise, and that it was so presented by a
jury." l Appleyard was sent to the Fleet for his indiscre-
tions, and applied for a copy of the report recording the
proceedings at the inquest. Having read these he wrote to
the Council that he found therein "not only such proof,
testified under the oath of fifteen persons, how his late sister,
by misfortune, happened of death, but also such manifest
and plain demonstration thereof as hath fully and clearly
satisfied him, and therefore commending her soul to God,
> Hatfield MSS., Vol. I., pp. 350—1.
150 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
he has not further to say of that cause." * How far the
privations of the Fleet helped him to arrive at this decision
it is hazardous to guess, but it is the more important to draw
attention to it because Froude, who makes a point of
Appleyard's original charges, does not refer to this recanta-
tion. Fresh light is thrown on the incident not only in the
Hatfield MSS., but also in the Historical Manuscripts Com-
mission's " Report on the Pepys Manuscripts," in which
there is a letter from Blount to the Earl of Leicester de-
scribing in dramatic detail the alleged attempt by Leicester's
enemies to suborn Lady Robert's brother. Appleyard,
according to this account, was promised that he should lack
neither gold nor silver if he would join them in charging
Leicester with the death of his wife, and also with being
"the only hinderer of the Queen's marriage." Appleyard
declares that he stoutly declined, vowing that he would be
Leicester's to death.
As soon as the jury's verdict at the inquest was known, the
Queen could afford to restore her favourite to favour, and it
was not long before he took up his old position at Court.
Neither of them appeared to care much now how the world
regarded the affair — though the ugliest reports were spread
abroad. " The rumours be so maliciously reported here,"
wrote Sir Nicholas Throckmorton to Cecil from Paris,
" touching the marriage of the Lord Robert and the death
of his wife, that I know not where to turn me, nor what
countenance to make."2 Annoyed at last beyond endurance
the English Ambassador ventured the length of sending his
Secretary, Jones, to tell Elizabeth exactly how her reputation
was suffering abroad. Jones gives a most interesting
account of his interview with the Queen :
MR. R. J. JONES TO SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON.
["Hardwicke State Papers."]
November 30, 1560.
Sir,
With all the diligence I could make I arrived not
at the Court here till Monday at night, the 25th of
1 Hatfield MSS. I., p. 346.
2 Hardwicke State Papers, Vol. I., p. 121.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 151
November, at what time I delivered my letters to Mr.
Secretary, and attending all the next day upon him, I
spoke not with the Queen's Majesty till Wednesday
at night at Greenwich, whither she came to bed from
Eltham, when she dined and hunted all that day with
divers of my Lords.
I had declared unto Mr. Secretary, before I spoke
with her, the day after my arrival, the discourse of the
Lord of St. John's, and your Lordship's opinion,
which he willed me to put in writing, as I did. Mr.
Secretary showed both the same to the Queen's
Majesty, as her Highness in my talk with her told
me. I will tell your Lordship the story, and then
you may guess at it. There was one occasion, as
your Lordship knoweth, in the discourse, to speak ot
the delivery of the letters to the French King and
Queen in favour of the Earl of Arran, when the
French Queen said that the Queen's Majesty would
marry the Master of her horses. The 26th of
November all my Lords of the Council dined at the
Scottish Ambassador's lodging, where they were very
highly feasted. I repaired thither to show myself to
my Lords, where, after I had attended half dinner-
time, my Lord Robert rose up, and went to the Court,
and in the way sent a gentleman back to will me to
repair thither after him, as I did, after I had declared
the message to Mr. Secretary. Being come unto
him, he asked me whether the French Queen had
said that the Queen's Majesty would marry her horse-
keeper, and told me he had seen all the discourse of
your Lordship's proceedings, together with the
intelligence, and that Mr. Secretary told him that
the French Queen had said so. I answered that I
said no such matter. He laid the matter upon me
so strong, as the author thereof being avowed, that
I would not deny the French Queen had said that
the Queen would marry the Master of her horses.
This was all he said to me, and he willed me that
I should in no case let it be known to Mr. Secretary
that he had told me thus much, as I have not indeed,
152 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
nor mean to do ; whereby I judge that Mr. Secretary
did declare it only to the Queen, at whose hands my
Lord Robert had it. The same night I spake to Mr.
Killigrew, and having delivered your Lordship's letter,
and told him the intelligence, he said in the end unto
me, with, as it were, a sad look : " I think verily that
my Lord Robert will run away with the hare, and
have the Queen " ; to whom I answered nothing.
Thus much I thought good to write before I came to
speak of my proceeding with the Queen's Majesty.
The 27th, I spoke with her Majesty at Greenwich,
at six o'clock at night, and declared unto her the talk
of the Ambassadors of Spain and Venice, and the
Marquess [of Northampton] and your advice touching
the General Council. When I had done with the
first point of my tale, " By my troth," said she, " I
thought it was such a matter, and he need not have
sent you hither, for it had been more meet to have
kept you there still." I said that if it had been
written in cipher, it must have come to the knowledge
of some others. " Of nobody," said she, " but of my
Secretary ; or else he might have written it in my
own cipher."
When I came to touch nearer the quick, " I have
heard of this before," quoth she, " and he need not to
have sent you withal." I said that the care you had
was so great that you could not but advertise her
Majesty of such things as might touch her, and that
you took this to be no matter to be opened but to
herself. When I came to the point that touched his
race [Lord Robert's ancestry], which I set forth in
as vehement terms as the case required, and that the
Duke's [Northumberland's] hatred had been rather to
her than to the Queen her sister, she laughed, and
forthwith turned herself to the one side and to the
other, and set her hand upon her face.
She thereupon told me that the matter [Amy
Robsart's death] had been tried in the country, and
found to be contrary to that which was reported,
saying that he was then in the Court, and none of his
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 153
at the attempt at his wife's house ; and that it fell out
as should neither touch his honesty nor her honour.
Quoth she : " My Ambassador knoweth somewhat of
my mind in these matters." She heard me very
patiently, I think the rather because I made, before I
spake unto her Majesty, a long protestation, as
methought I had need to do, considering that my
Lord Robert knew thereof as much as he did.
. . . The Queen's Majesty looketh not so hearty
and well as she did, by a great deal ; and surely the
matter of my Lord Robert doth much perplex her,
and is never like to take place. The talk thereof is
somewhat slack, as generally misliked except by the
setters forth thereof, who are as your Lordship
knoweth. . . . The Queen's Majesty stayeth the
creation [of Lord Robert's Earldom]. The bills were
made for the purpose at the day appointed. When
they were presented, she cut them asunder with a
knife. I can by no means learn, and yet I have talked
with such as know much, that my Lord Robert's
matters will go as was looked for ; and yet the
favours be great which are shown him at the Queen's
hands.
Yours, etc.,
R. J. JONES.
Elizabeth's excuse for changing her uncertain mind in the
matter of the peerage which she herself had promised Sir
Robert was that the Dudleys had been traitors for three
generations. His reproaches almost led her to relent, but
she clapped him on the cheeks with a playful " No, no, the
bear and the ragged staff are not so soon overthrown " ; and
Queen and favourite " were as great as ever they were,"
wrote Sir Henry Neville to Throckmorton.1 But, he added,
when urged to marry him she would " pup with her lips :
she would not marry a subject . . . men would come to ask
for my lord's grace " ; and when it was pointed out that
she might make him a king, " that she would in no wise
agree to."
1 Conway MSS.
154 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Throckmorton had other troubles to face in Paris, besides
the sneers of his brother diplomatists on the subject of
his Sovereign's honour. The French King and Queen
still refused to sign the Treaty of Edinburgh, notwithstand-
ing their agreement beforehand to ratify whatever terms
their Commissioners were able to make. Mary Stuart herself
told Throckmorton what she thought of her subjects at this
troubled period, as he reported at length to Queen Elizabeth
in his letter of November 17 :
" I will tell you what moveth me to refuse to ratify
the Treaty. My subjects of Scotland do their duty in
nothing, nor have they performed one point that
belongeth to them. I am," quoth she, "their Queen,
and so they call me, but they use me not so. They
have done what pleaseth them, and though I have
not many faithful there, yet those few that be there
of my party, were not present when these matters
were done, nor at this assembly. I will have them
assemble by my authority, and proceed in their doings
after the laws of the realm, which they so much boast
of, and keep none of them. They have sent hither a
poor gentleman to me, who I disdain to have come
in the name of them all in such a legation. They
have sent great personages to your Mistress. I am
their Sovereign, but they take me not so. They must
be taught to know their duties." *
The exact position of affairs is further stated by Throck-
morton in the following letter to the English Ambassador in
Spain :
SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR THOMAS
CHAMBERLAIN.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times"}
November 21, 1560.
... I wrote unto you of the coming hither of the
Lord of St. John of Jerusalem, of Scotland, sent from
the nobility and people of Scotland to perform such
things in the name of them all as were articulated and
1 Hardwicke State Papers.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 155
accorded upon in their late Treaty, made between the
Commissioners of this side and them : and also there-
upon to demand of this King and Queen the ratifica-
tion of the said agreement, according to his commission
and instructions ; the copies whereof I send you
herewith that you may well understand the same,
and proceed the more soundly therein, whensoever
you shall have occasion moved you. The said Lord
of St. John's hath been with the said Princes, with
whom he hath proceeded according to his directions,
and hath demanded the ratification. At his first
coming he was much made of, and many things
promised him ; but after a few days not so much.
To the demand of the French King and Queen's
ratification of the Treaty, answer was made him that
for as much as the Scots had in no part performed
that which belonged to good subjects, but had
assembled themselves upon their own authority,
without the consent of the King and Queen their
sovereigns : the same Treaty ought not to be regarded,
and therefore they would not ratify it. The further
reasons why, they would not tell him, but concluded
that the King and Queen would send two gentlemen
into Scotland to declare their griefs and reasons why
they thought not meet to ratify the said accord. And
so he standeth upon his dispatch away from hence
homeward with this answer.
Among other things these Princes here are not a
little grieved that such a solemn legation is sent into
England, and that there is but one sent hither, and
he in post ! There are come into England from the
estates of Scotland, the Earls of Morton and Glen-
cairn, and the Lord of Lethington, to visit her
Majesty, and to give her thanks ; which is the
legation that is above spoken of. Another reason
that they find why they are not bound to ratify the
said Scottish Treaty is, that the same was made with
such and of such as were rebels, and bore arms
against their sovereigns, and therefore not to be
observed ; and that his commission and instructions
156 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
were subscribed by the same rebels, and of few of
their good subjects. And yet the few names of such
few good subjects as were set to, were not of their
own hands, but counterfeited by other. Among other,
these frivolous devices were found out to refuse them
their ratification.
About the time of this said Ambassador's negotia-
tion about these matters, I received letters from the
Queen's Majesty, with commandment to demand soon
of this King and Queen their ratification of the
late Treaty made also in Scotland, between
her Majesty and the French Commissioners, which
had been long delayed, for that the Scots (these men
said) had then yet sent nobody to perform things on
their behalfs. The Scottish Ambassador therefore
having been at the Court, and done his legation, upon
whose coming was all our stay, and therefore I
hoping to have no further delay therein, I resorted
to the King and performed mine instructions and
commandment, in renewing the demand of the said
ratification of our Treaty. Answer was made me both
by the King and Queen, the Cardinal of Lorraine,
and Duke of Guise, in the same sort as had been
made before to the Lord of St. John's. Adding
thereto, that forasmuch as our Treaty depended upon
the Scots' Treaty, and because the Scots had not
performed all things on their part : like as the King
was not bound to nor ought to ratify a Treaty made
by his subjects without the consent of their sovereign,
specially their not observing their duties of obedience
towards him promised therein : so was there no cause
the King should ratify ours, till the Scots had per-
formed all things on their behalf. And so they have
plainly refused to ratify our said Treaty, and spared
not to utter, in good terms, that the Scots must be
taught to know their duties, and to assemble in their
sovereigns' names, and not in their own, as though
they would make it a republic. And that rather than
the King will suffer these disorders, he will quit all.
They stick now much upon a league that is between
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 157
the Queen's Majesty and the realm of Scotland.
And till that be broken, (which I trust is not meant
to be,) I perceive they will be at no better point
with us.
As for the leaving the bearing of the Queen's
Majesty's arms, which they use yet still in open
shows and entries of towns, whereof was spoken at
this audience, and told that by the said treaty the
King should leave so to do : that was answered that
till a treaty be ratified it is no Treaty : and therefore
there is no reason why the King and Queen should
sooner satisfy than be satisfied. And that the King
hath borne the arms of long time, and not without
reason and title to do so. And that therefore there
is no cause why he should leave his right. These,
with divers like purposes sounding all to be defences
and cavils not to ratify our Treaty, were used to me
at this last negotiation.
Wherein I could not alter their moods for any
allegations nor objections that I could use, but rather
understand their intents of revenge, than will to
quietness. It is strange to see how little princes of
honour pass for their promises and authentic obliga-
tions. In the French King and Queen's Commission
given to Messieurs de Valence and Randan, they
promised bonafide et verbo regio to perform and ratify
all that his deputies should agree upon : as you may
see by the same : the copy whereof I also send you
herewith.
These Scots that the French King and Queen
make exceptions unto, are the very same that the
accord and agreement were made with now at Edin-
burgh. These doings, my Lord Ambassador, are far
from the terms that we were in, when our men were
before Leith, and our navy strong on the sea. There
can be no more evident declaration of meanings and
these men's intents (when time and means will serve)
to put us in remembrance of things past, unless they
should have bid me to have retired myself hence
indeed.
158 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
It was not long after this that the blow was dealt which,
within a few months of her mother's death, was to rob Mary
of husband as well. The French Court was now at Orleans
holding a high court of justice there in a vain attempt to
crush heresy by a policy of extermination. Towards the end
of November all these plans were upset by the illness of
the King, beginning with a sudden attack of extreme cold,
accompanied by fever, " an indisposition," wrote the Venetian
Ambassador in France, " to which he is subject, and said to
have inherited from his father and grandfather. . . . His
Majesty is still suffering from this malady, and though his
health continues to improve he is not yet free from fever,
this being its fourth day, and he not only does not quit the
house or his chamber, but not even his bed, no one being
admitted to see him but those most intimate with him. The
cause of this accident is supposed to be the sudden change
of weather, from extreme mildness like that of spring to
bitter and excessive cold, against which the King took no
precaution, and he is now made to remain in bed, much to
his regret, the Queen Mother willing it so, more trom the
fear which arises from too much female tenderness than
from any need, as if this malady had befallen a private
individual, not only would he not have remained in bed, but
have gone wherever he pleased and where his presence was
needed; but with kings and great princes, who personally
are of great consequence, their slightest indisposition is held
in account." l
With the poor constitution which Francis had to fight
against it, however, the illness was more dangerous than
Surian imagined. Its course can be followed in detail in the
dispatches of the various Ambassadors until its fatal termina-
tion on December 5, when " it pleased our Lord God," to
quote from the same correspondent, " that the most Christian
King should pass to a better life." a He left, wrote Throck-
morton to Elizabeth, " as heavy and dolorous a wife as of
right she had good cause to be, who, by long watching
with him during his sickness, and painful diligence about
him, and specially by the issue thereof, is not in best tune
1 Venetian Calendar: Vol. VII., p. 269.
2 Ibid., p. 276.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 159
of her body, but without danger."1 The French crown
descended to her young brother-in-law, Charles Duke of
Orleans, " a youth," wrote Surian, " ten years of age, of
handsome presence, gracious, and high and noble spirited,"
whom all the courtiers hurried to congratulate the moment
that Francis had breathed his last. " So by degrees," added
the Venetian, " everyone will forget the death of the late
King except the young Queen, his widow, who being no less
noble minded than beautiful and graceful in appearance, the
thoughts of widowhood at so early an age, and of the loss of
a consort who was so great a King, and who so dearly loved
her, and also that she is dispossessed of the Crown of France,
with little hope of recovering that of Scotland, which is her
sole patrimony and dower, so afflict her that she will not
receive any consolation, but, brooding over her disasters
with constant tears and passionate and doleful lamentations,
she universally inspires great pity." a
Throckmorton himself, though he told Elizabeth that she
had cause to thank God for His mercies in taking away both
the late King of France and his father, "considering their inten-
tions towards her," was moved to admiration of Mary's conduct
when she withdrew from the public gaze immediately upon
her husband's death, according to the ancient custom which
required the widowed Queens of France to put on a loose
robe de chambre and mourn for forty days in a darkened
room :
SIR N. THROCKMORTON TO LORD ROBERT DUDLEY.
[Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times."l
ORLEANS, December 31, 1560.
Since the death of the late King things proceed
here in such sort as those that were worst affected
to the Queen's Majesty, and most desirous to trouble
her realm, shall not have so good and ready means
to excuse their malice, as they had in the late
King's time. And yet, my lord, this I trust shall be
no occasion to make her Majesty less considerate, or
her counsel less provident, for assuredly the Queen of
1 Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. III., p. 421.
» Venetian Calendar : Vol. VII., p. 278.
160 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Scotland, her Majesty's cousin, doth carry herself so
honourably, advisedly, and discreetly, as I cannot but
fear her progress. Methinketh it were to be wished
of all wise men and her Majesty's good subjects, that
the one of these two Queens of the Isle of Britain
were transformed into the shape of a man, to make
so happy a marriage as thereby there might be an
unity of the whole isle and their appendants. Who-
soever is conversant in stories, shall well perceive
estates have by no one thing grown so great, and
lasted in their greatness, as by marriages, which have
united countries that do confine together.
The depth of Mary's grief is sounded in her own pitiful
words in her letter to the King of Spain, written either at the
end of this year or the beginning of 1561 :
MARY STUART TO PHILIP II.
I" Letters of Mary Queen of Scots " : Strickland.]
To the King of Spain.
Monsieur my good brother, — I was unwilling to
omit this opportunity of writing to you, to thank
you for the polite letters you sent me by Signer Don
Antonio, and for the civil things which he and your
Ambassador said to me concerning the sorrow you
felt for the death of the late King, my lord, assuring
you, monsieur my good brother, that you have
lost in him the best brother you ever had and
that you have comforted by your letters the most
afflicted poor woman under heaven ; God having
bereft me of all that I loved and held dear on earth,
and left me no other consolation whatever but when
I see those who deplore his fate and my too great
misfortune. God will assist me, if he pleases, to bear
what comes from him with patience ; as I confess
that, without his aid, I should find so great a calamity
too insupportable for my strength and my little virtue.
But, knowing that it is not reasonable you should be
annoyed by my letters, which can only be filled with
this melancholy subject, I will conclude, after beseech-
PJI [Photo, Mansell
MARY STUART IN WIDOW'S DRESS
After the portrait by Francois Clouet in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 161
ing you to be a good brother to me in my affliction,
and to continue me in your favour, to which I affec-
tionately commend myself ; praying God to give you
monsieur my good brother, as much happiness as I
wish you.
Your very good sister and cousin,
MARY.
With the accession of the boy king, Charles IX., the
destinies of France fell into the hands of Catherine de'
Medici, the King of Navarre, and England's old ally, the
Constable Montmorenci. No love was lost between them
and the widowed Mary, daughter as she was of the despotic
House of Guise, whose changing fortunes may be traced in
the correspondence of the period immediately after Francis'
death. The Calvinists were released from the prisons, a
General Council was planned at which England, France and
Germany should unite to give peace to Europe through the
" true religion," and everything, as Throckmorton saw-it,
promised well for England and the Reformation, if only Eliza-
beth would seize this golden opportunity and not ruin it by
her scandalous relations with Dudley :
SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR WILLIAM
CECIL.
[Froude's " History of England."]
December 31, 1560.
The House of Guise presently does seem here to
bear small rule. The countenance and hope they have
is of the King of Spain, who for religion and other
respects, it is thought will help to stay their credit as
much as he may. The principal managingof the affairs
doth seem to be chiefly in the hands of the Queen-
mother, the King of Navarre, and the Constable ; and,
as the King of Spain will earnestly travail to suppress
religion, so is it most safe for her Majesty and her best
policy, to be as diligent to advance it. I do well see
you will do the- wise and good offices that are neces-
sary to be done, and that may be done. The true
religion is very like to take place in France, and so
E.M.S. M
162 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
consequently throughout all Europe where Christianity
is received. I did of late address myself to the
Admiral, who for his virtue and wisdom is much
esteemed. I do find by him that if the Queen's
Majesty will put an earnest mind and hand to this
matter, it will be here well accepted, and will work
very good effect. We talked of many particularities.
He thinks that the General Council cannot take place ;
but that the King must assemble a national council,
whereunto, if her Majesty would send some learned
men, he does not doubt but all shall be well.
But if her Majesty do so foully forget herself in her
marriage as the bruit runneth here, never think to
bring anything to pass either here or elsewhere. I
would you did hear the lamentations, the declamations,
and sundry affections, which have course here for that
matter. Sir, do not forget yourself as to think you do
enough because you do not further the matter. Re-
member your mistress is young and subject to affec-
tions ; you are her sworn councillor and in great
credit with her. You know there be some of your
colleagues which have promoted the matter. There
is nobody reputed of judgment and authority that
doth to her Majesty disallow it, for such as be so
wise as to mislike it be too timorous to show it ; so
as her Majesty's affection doth rather find wind and
sail to set it forward than any advice to quench it.
My duty to her, my goodwill to you, doth thus move
me to speak plainly . . . Sir, after I had written thus
much the ambassador of Spain came to visit me ; who
did, amongst other matters, earnestly require me to
tell him whether the Queen's Majesty was not secretly
married to the Lord Robert : for, said he, I assure
you this Court is full of it ; and, whatever any man
doth make your mistress to believe, assure yourself
that there never was princess so overseen, if she do
not give order in that matter betimes. The bruits of
her doings, said he, be very strange in all Courts and
countries.
Throckmorton's only reward was a plain hint from Cecil
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 163
to mind his own business. " I must advise you," he wrote
on January 15, in answer to the above letter, " not to meddle
with the matters of this Court, otherwise than ye may be
well advised from hence. What her Majesty will determine
to do, only God I think knoweth ; and in her His will be
fulfilled. Writings remain, and coming into adverse hands
may be sinisterly interpreted on the other part ; servants
or messengers may be reporters to whom they list, and
therefore I cannot safely give you so plain counsel as I wish ;
but, in one word I say contend not where victory cannot
be had."1 He added, however, that he realised the excep-
tional chance now offered of spreading in France that cause
which they both professed — " The knowledge of Christ
against the anti-Christ of Rome. . . . Now is the time
for Calvin and all such noble men as have fetched their
knowledge thence, to impugn and suppress the tyranny
of the Papists."3 The perils of the new situation were
fully realised by the Spanish Ambassador in London, a
fact which probably explains why, after being deceived so
often before, he allowed himself to be taken into the
matrimonial confidences of Dudley and his apparently
infatuated Queen. Lord Robert's move was a counterstroke
to the renewed suit of Eric of Sweden, now being pressed
so urgently upon the Queen by Cecil and his Protestant
friends that the favourite was forced to bring matters to
a crisis. What Elizabeth was really aiming at is beyond
human comprehension, the most plausible theory being that
she was merely procrastinating, knowing full well that time
was her most valuable ally, and that she could always change
her mind before it was too late :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
January 22, 1561.
Since writing the enclosed letter Henry Sidney,
who is the brother-in-law of Lord Robert, came to
see me. He is a sensible man and better behaved
than any of the courtiers. He began by beating
1 Froude.
9 Foreign Calendar : Elizabeth, III., p. 498.
M 2
164 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
about the bush very widely, but at last came to his
brother-in-law's affairs, and said that as the matter
was now public property, and I knew how much
inclined the Queen was to the marriage, he wondered
that I had not suggested to your Majesty this oppor-
tunity for gaining over Lord Robert by extending
a hand to him now, and he would thereafter serve
and obey your Majesty like one of your own vassals,
and a great deal more to the same effect. I told
him that what I had so far heard of this matter was
of such a character that I had hardly ventured to
write two lines to your Majesty about it, nor had
either the Queen or Lord Robert ever said a word
to me that I could write. I said, moreover, that
your Majesty had no more need to gain over the
Kings of England than they to gain over your
Majesty, although, in matters of courtesy to your
friends your Majesty always exceeded ; but in this
affair your Majesty had no means of guessing the
thoughts of the Queen, and she had not hitherto
taken the advice you had given her, so that there
was no opportunity of offering advice again. We
discussed this for some time and he entirely agreed
with everything I said, being well informed of what
had happened in the past, unblinded by prejudice,
and a man who sees things in their proper light.
He said that if I was satisfied about the death of
Robert's wife, he saw no other reason why I should
hesitate to write the purport of this conversation to
your Majesty, as, after all, although it was a love
affair, yet the object of it was marriage, and that
there was nothing illicit about it, or such as could
not be set right by your Majesty's authority. As
regards the death of the wife, he was certain that it
was accidental, and he had never been able to learn
otherwise, although he had inquired with great care
and knew that public opinion held to the contrary.
I told him if what he said were true the evil was
less, for, if murder had been committed, God would
never help nor fail to punish so abominable a crime,
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 165
whatever men might do to mend it, but that it would
be difficult for Lord Robert to make things appear
as he represented them. He answered it was quite
true that no one believed it, and that even preachers
in the pulpits discoursed on the matter in a way that
was prejudicial to the honour and interests of the
Queen, which had prevented her from taking steps
to remedy the religious disorders of the country, and
reduce it to a better condition, in which task Lord
Robert would help her. I replied that although your
Majesty would be very glad to see religion restored
in the country and elsewhere, this was a matter
which the Queen ought not to mix up with temporal
affairs, but treat it simply as a question between
herself and her God, to be diligently undertaken by
her whether she was married or single, if she were
a Christian at all. He agreed with this also, and
although he is not at all well informed on religious
questions, he did not fail to admit that the state of
the country was very bad, and a way must be found
to mend it.
He told me a number of things in this respect
which grieved me, and endeavoured to persuade me
with solemn oaths that the Queen and Lord Robert
were determined to restore religion by means of a
general Concilia. He then pressed me still further
to write to your Majesty and forward the business,
so that Lord Robert should receive the boon from
your Majesty's hands. I said he knew what happened
with his wife in the matter of the Archduke when
the Queen had deceived both of us, and that I could
not venture to write unless the Queen authorised me
to do so, and told me what to say ; in which case it
would be my duty. He said the Queen would not
mention the matter to me unless I began the con-
versation, but that I might be sure that she desired
nothing more than the countenance of your Majesty
to conclude the match, and that Lord Robert himself
would come to me and beg me to write to your
Majesty what I heard from him, and assure you of
166 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
his desire to serve you at all times and in all things,
to the full extent of his means and abilities, and more
especially regarding religion, as is his duty. I told
him again there was no need to bring the religious
question into these transactions, and that if Lord
Robert wanted to open his heart on this point to
your Majesty I did not prevent him, but at the same
time, although it was just and necessary that he
should try to relieve his conscience, yet, if he wished
to negotiate with your Majesty, and expected to be
believed and held as an honest man, I thought it
improper that he should bring in the question of
religion at all. He (Sidney) also asked me whether
I thought that the Queen should send a person of
rank to treat of this matter with your Majesty, and
satisfy you as to any points in which your Majesty
desired satisfaction. The antecedents of the present
ambassador were such that the Queen could not
trust him in this business, and particularly as regarded
religion, as he is a very great heretic. I said she
could do as she thought best, but we would consider
the matter, and I would tell Lord Robert my opinion
when I had heard what he had to say. I imagine
that Sidney himself is desirous of going, so as to
take the opportunity of seeing the Countess de Feria,
who is his niece. We parted with the understanding
that they would both come and see me in a few days.
The above is exactly what passed, and for some
days I had suspected that the Queen had some such
idea, but as the business is altogether such a bad
one, I did not venture to broach the subject to them,
and simply remained quiet and gave the answers
I have related. I thought best moreover to listen
to what they said and to advise your Majesty thereof,
so as not to arouse any suspicion in their minds, or
perchance to cause them to take some bad course in
their business. It is for your Majesty to decide, but
I have no doubt that if there is any way to cure
the bad spirit of the Queen, both as regards religion
and your Majesty's interests, it is by means of this
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 167
marriage, at least whilst her desire for it lasts. I
am also sure that, if your Majesty's support fail her,
your Majesty could easily turn her out of her kingdom
by means of her own subjects. I well know the state
of this affair and the feeling of the people, and I am
certain that if she do not obtain your Majesty's consent
she will not dare to publish the match, and it is
possible that if she finds herself unable to obtain
your Majesty's favour, she may throw herself to the
bad and satisfy her desires, by which she is governed
to an extent that would be a grievous fault in a person
of any condition, much more in a woman of her rank.
Things have reached such a pitch that her chamber-
lain has left her, and Axele of the Privy Chamber
(Yaxley ?) is in prison for having babbled : indeed
there is not a man who has not some tale to tell.
Cecil is he who most opposed the business, but he
has given way in exchange for the offices held by
Treasurer Parry, who died recently of sheer grief.
I must not omit to say also that the common opinion,
confirmed by certain physicians, is that this woman
is unhealthy, and it is believed certain that she will
not have children, although there is no lack of people
who say she has already had some, but of this I have
seen no trace and do not believe it. This being the
state of things, perhaps some step may be taken in
your Majesty's interests towards declaring as successor
of the Queen, after her death, whoever may be most
desirable for your Majesty.
Quadra's words must not be taken literally. Elizabeth's
position, though insecure, was far from being so desperate
as he wanted Philip to believe ; and Cecil had not " given
way." Having discovered the intrigue with Quadra the
Queen's sagacious secretary — always a tower of strength at
the critical moment — affected acquiescence in order the more
effectually to bring it to naught, though the way thereto, as
he afterwards told Throckmorton, " was full of crooks."
The Ambassador presently had an opportunity of rinding
out from Dudley and the Queen themselves how matters
appeared to stand with them :
168 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
February 23, 1561.
On the 22nd ultimo I informed your Majesty of
Henry Sidney's interview with me in Lord Robert's
business, and I have delayed giving them an answer
about it because they, on their side, have delayed
addressing me further on the matter, the cause of this
being, as far as I can learn, that the Queen does not
commend her affairs to your Majesty out of any wish
or good will of her own, but forced thereto by the
persuasion of Lord Robert, who knows the peril in
which they stand, and sees clearly that, without the
favour of your Majesty, they can hardly ensure them-
selves against a rising in the country, or suppress one
should it occur. I believe the Queen would, never-
theless, have done ere this as Robert urges her if it
had not been for the interference of Paget, who,
knowing her humour, has advised her to hold her
hand until she can make a firm peace and alliance
with France, when she could treat with your Majesty
more advantageously. This has been the reason for
her having changed her mind about sending Peter
Mewtas, who was to have gone to France simply
with a message of condolence for the death of the
King, and she has now decided to send the Earl of
Bedford with instructions to ask for the ratification of
the peace, and, when this has been obtained, to
endeavour to bring about a good understanding and
alliance with Venddme and the heretics of the French
Court. I do not know what will come of this, but
Guido Cavalcanti, who left Paris on the I5th with a
dispatch from the Earl, says that he expects that this
time the misunderstandings between the French and
the Queen will be ended for ever. These transactions
have thus delayed the affair about which Sidney
spoke to me at the instance of Lord Robert, and as
he (Sidney) believes with the connivance of the Queen.
Finally, however, on the I3th, Robert and I met in
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 169
the presence of Sidney, and, after he had repeated all
that Sidney had told me, and thanked me with a great
many compliments and humble words for the answer
I had sent, he besought me, in your Majesty's name,
to commend the Queen to marry him, and he would
promise to render your Majesty all the service his
brother-in-law had told me, and very much more. I
answered him, that as your Majesty had had no
information on this subject until now, you had not
had an opportunity of giving me instructions with
regard to it ; so that I could not address the Queen in
your Majesty's name without grave error, but what I
could and would do with great pleasure wasto act under
my previous instructions, and request the Queen to
make up her mind to marry and settle the succession,
and, if during the conversation any particular person
should be discussed, I would speak of him (Lord
Robert) as favourably as he could wish, and I would
venture to do this for him, knowing the affection
and good will your Majesty has always borne him.
He seemed very well satisfied with this, as he must
have expected that I should not answer him in this
way, and he begged me to speak to the Queen at once.
I did so two days afterwards, and told her she already
knew how much your Majesty wished to see her
married, and her government firmly and tranquilly
established, and the various efforts you had made to
that end, and that as I now heard that the matter was
under discussion, I could not refrain from expressing to
her my pleasure thereat. I also said that, whenever
she thought necessary to consult your Majesty on the
subject, I would use all diligence to carry out what
was entrusted to me, and if on this occasion I did not
particularise more clearly, it was because I had no
special orders from your Majesty, who had not been
informed of what was passing. After much circum-
locution she said she wished to confess to me and
tell me her secret in confession, which was that she
was no angel, and did not deny that she had some
affection for Lord Robert for the many good qualities
170 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
he possessed, but she certainly had never decided to
marry him or anyone else, although she daily saw
more clearly the necessity for her marriage, and to
satisfy the English humour that it was desirable that
she should marry an Englishman, and she asked me
to tell her what your Majesty would think if she
married one of her servitors, as the Duchess of
Suffolk1 and the Duchess of Somerset2 had done.
I told her I could not say what your Majesty would
think, as I did not know and had not thought of
asking, but that I promised her I would use all
diligence to learn as soon as she told me to write to
your Majesty about it, and I quite believed that your
Majesty would be pleased to hear of her marriage
with whomever it might be, as it was so important
to her and her kingdom, and I also knew that your
Majesty would be happy to hear of the advancement
and aggrandizement of Lord Robert, as I understood
that your Majesty had great affection for him and
held him in high esteem. She seemed as pleased at
this as her position allowed her to be. She told me
when the time arrived she would speak to me, and
promised me to do nothing without the advice and
countenance of your Majesty. I did not care to
carry the matter further for fear of making a mistake,
although she would have been glad to have done so.
I had no instruction from your Majesty on the subject,
and I did not wish, knowing her character, to refuse
to give her this little pleasure and hope, for fear
otherwise that she might be impelled to rush into
some foolish course, seeing that she is so infatuated,
and the heretics of Germany, France, and Scotland
are busy here with their insolence and their combina-
1 This may refer either to Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, daughter
of Charles Brandon by Mary Tudor, Dowager Queen of France ;
who, after the execution of her husband, Henry Grey, Marquess of
Dorset and Duke of Suffolk (1554), married her steward, Adrian
Stokes ; or to Catharine, Lady Willoughby d'Eresby in her own
right, widow of Charles Brandon, who married a gentleman in her
household, Robert Bertie. — Hume.
2 Anne Stanhope, second wife of the Protector Somerset, who was
married to Mr. Francis Newdigate. — Hume.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 171
tions, and above all because your Majesty's
neighbouring states are so pressed that a froward
decision of this woman might prejudice them, although
she herself might be ruined by it.
Robert came the next day to thank me, and
repeated to me all the details of what I had said to
the Queen, who, he told me, was much pleased, and
he begged me in the next interview to revert to the
subject, as he knew that it was only fear and timidity
that prevented the Queen from deciding. He again
made me great promises, and assured me that every-
thing should be placed in your Majesty's hands, and,
even as regarded religion, if the sending of a repre-
sentative to the Concilia did not suffice, he would go
himself. I again repeated to him that I would do
everything I could, as indeed I had done, to forward
his suit, so far as was justified by your Majesty's
Commission to me, but with regard to religion I
begged him not to speak to me about it on any
account, as that should not be dependent upon other
matters, and what he and the Queen did about it did
not concern your Majesty, but their own conscience.
It was true, I said, that as a prince who is Catholic
both in style, and in fact, nothing would give your
Majesty greater pleasure than to see the end of these
divisions and dissensions in religion. I am thus
cautious with these people because if they are playing
false, which is quite possible, I do not wish to give
them the opportunity of saying that we offered them
your Majesty's favour in return for their changing
their religion, as they say other similar things to
make your Majesty disliked by the heretics here and
in Germany. If they are acting straightforwardly, a
word from your Majesty in due time will do more than
I can now do with many. Your Majesty knows these
people and the individuals, and has learnt from my
letters and Dr. Turner's statements in Flanders the
real state of affairs here. I therefore beg that your
Majesty may be pleased to send me orders as to what
I should do, and I cannot refrain from saying that
172 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
for reasons which are notoriously in your Majesty's
interest, affairs here must be mended one way or
another, and this can be more easily done now than
at any other time, either by your Majesty showing
favour to Robert and bringing him to some terms
advantageous for your Majesty's objects, and the
stability of the country, or else by protecting their
opponents, and helping them against these people,
who have been such bad neighbours to your Majesty,
and who will every day become worse. To let these
affairs drift at the mercy of chance neither secures
nor punishes, and cannot fail to produce evil disservice
to your Majesty. If in saying this I transgress the
bounds of my duty I crave your Majesty's pardon for
allowing my zeal to make me forget my prudence.
I am not alone in my opinion, as this is the universal
theme of all the goodly people in the kingdom, and
all who wish for your Majesty's advantage.
The Duke of Norfolk is on very bad terms with the
Queen. Lord Robert sent word to him the other day
that he had heard that the Duke's servants were
declaring that he was Robert's enemy, and he wished
to know whether this was true, and, if it were not,
that the servants should be punished. The Duke
sent a gentleman of his household named Nicholas
Stranger with his excuses, and the affair has been
patched up, but there is no certainty that some
trouble may not arise from it. It appears to me
that the Queen is angry with him (Norfolk) alone,
and is determined to humble him when she can ; and
indeed she gave me to understand as much herself
without naming the Duke. He, on his side, is full of
boasts, although I do know how it will turn out
when he has to carry them into effect.
The cautious Philip was ready enough to help Dudley on
the lines suggested, but, as he explained in his reply to
Quadra, it was advisable first to let them put their proposals
in writing, and also give some concrete proof of their sincerity
in the matter of religion :
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 173
PHILIP II. TO BISHOP QUADRA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
TOLEDO, March 17, 1561.
... As I am so deeply concerned and wish so
earnestly to find a remedy for the religious evils of
the country, I was glad to read the account you sent
of what had passed between Sidney and you about
Lord Robert, and the benefits which might arise to
religion if we were to favour and protect him in his
suit with the Queen, and although, so far as we can
see, the discussion did not rest upon much foundation,
and we do not know what had passed between Lord
Robert and you, yet, as our principal aim is directed
to the service of our Lord, the maintenance of religion
and the settlement and pacification of the country,
and as we see that Sidney's proposals tend to this
end, and further bearing in mind that God, if He so
wills, can extract good from great evils, we have
decided that the negotiation suggested by Sidney
should be listened to. You will not only listen to
him and willingly enter into the subject when he
speaks of it, but try also to lead the matter on to a
more solid basis, as for instance, by bringing the
Queen and Lord Robert into it, and getting in writing
and signed by her whatever the Queen may wish to
be proposed to you. This is necessary, as her words
are so little to be depended upon, and you know by the
experience you have had of her that this is always the
course she pursues when she has no intention of ful-
filling what she says, and only wishes to use our
authority for her own designs and intentions. You
will therefore be very alert and cautious in this
negotiation, warned by what has been the result of
previous negotiations.
When the discussion is in progress it will be well
to make them understand that, in order to gain our
good will and obtain our aid in what they so much
desire, it will be necessary that the Queen should give
some signs of what she wants and aims at. Since she
174 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
has been Queen she has never yet done anything
according to our advice, or for our satisfaction towards
the amending of religion, or the pacification of her
kingdom, and what she might now do is to liberate
the prelates and other Catholics she has imprisoned,
agree to send her Ambassadors and Catholic bishops
to the Concilia, and submit herself unconditionally to
its decisions. Besides this she should, pending the
resolutions of the Concilio, allow Catholics to live as
they please without coercion or violence, and in view
of such action we should soon see whether she was
sincere in this business or only sought her private
ends. . . . There is only to add that if on opening
the discussion they desire to know whether you are
treating with our knowledge and consent, you must
judge if the affair looks solid and promising ; and, in
such case, or if you think necessary in order that they
may make the preparations required to carry their
intentions into effect, you may opportunely tell them
that you give ear to them with our full authority and
good will. This is the course we think should be
followed in the negotiations, and we leave the manner
and form of carrying out our wishes to your prudence
and zeal, which we are sure will enable you to fulfil
the task fittingly. In the conversations you may have
with Sidney and Lord Robert you had better give
them to understand that I have the same good will
towards the latter as I ever had, and take every
opportunity you may see to express affection and
attachment to him, so as to forward the affair by this
means. . . .
His Holiness writes us that he has appointed the
Abbe Martinengo to carry the bull of the Concilio to
the Queen, and has given him orders, when he arrives
in Flanders, to be governed by the directions of the
Bishop of Arras. I have written to the latter not to
let him pass until he sees what progress is being
made with Sidney's negotiations, because if these look
promising preparations could duly be made for giving
it (the bull) a better reception, and with hope of more
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 175
fruitful result. You will therefore keep the Bishop
well advised of the progress of the negotiations, and
he can, in sight thereof, write to us what steps are to
be taken from here, and the orders to be given respect-
ing the entry into England of the said Nuncio and
the fulfilment of his embassy. Advise me also of
everything that happens in this matter, as we await
your reply with the utmost solicitude.
Elizabeth, however, had no intention either of receiving
Martinengo, the Papal envoy, or of being represented at
the Concilia — the revived Council of Trent. One of her
objects in sending the Protestant Earl of Bedford to France,
as mentioned by Quadra in his letter of February 23, was to
persuade Catherine de' Medici to refuse her sanction to the
Council — though in this he was unsuccessful — the while they
were both participating in the meeting of Protestant princes
at Nuremburg. Cecil's subtle game may be detected
between the lines of Quadra's next letter to his King :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, March 25, 1561.
. . . Robert is very aggrieved and dissatisfied
that the Queen should defer placing matters in your
Majesty's hands, and sending a person to Spain to
negotiate as he told me at first, and as he has fallen
ill with annoyance the Queen resolved to please him
by taking the following step. She sent Cecil to me
to say that it would be a great service to the Queen and
a help to this business if your Majesty, as soon as
possible, would write her a letter saying that in the
interests of the tranquillity and welfare of this
country (which your Majesty desires as much as
those of your own kingdom) your Majesty advises her
not to delay her marriage any longer, and if she
could not accept any of the foreign Princes who are
her suitors, by reason of her disinclination to marry a
person whom she does not know, then your Majesty
thinks she ought to marry a gentleman of her own
176 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
country, to the satisfaction, and on the selection, of
her nobles, and your Majesty advises that this should
be done at once, and promises to be a friend to
whomever may be chosen for a husband. Cecil told
me this not as from the Queen but as from himself,
in the presence of Sidney, who had come to see me
just before, I believe in order that I might tell your
Majesty what the Queen sent to say to me. He
(Cecil) said also that this was very important in your
Majesty's interests and in the interests of the friend-
ship between the two houses, because if these
negotiations fell through the Queen might marry a
prince less friendly to your Majesty than Robert
would be. I answered that all this was very well,
but I desired to know whether it was the Queen who
sent word for me to write this, or whether it was a
discourse of his own ; because this point was most
important if your Majesty was to be persuaded to
write, and if it were not the Queen's own wish, I did
not know whether your Majesty would be disposed to
give her any more advice, bearing in mind the small
avail of all previous counsel to her. In reply he
begged me, seeing that the Queen was a modest
maiden and not inclined to marry, not to press her to
propose these means and expedients herself, which
would make her look like a woman who sought to
carry out her desires, and went praying people to
help her, but he urged me to get your Majesty to
write. I did not think fit to answer him further,
so as not to seem unwilling to do what he asked me.
I turned the conversation to Sidney, and asked him
whether Lord Robert would be pleased if your
Majesty did this service for him. Sidney answered
seriously that he would be grateful for all your
Majesty might be pleased to do for him, and he
begged me on his behalf to take up his cause
warmly.
Conversing further on the matter Cecil declared to
me the object of this expedient. He said that the
Queen was resolved to do nothing in the business
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 177
without the consent and goodwill of her people, who
have the right of controlling the public actions of
their sovereigns, and she did not wish to prejudice
this right by marrying without their consent. She
desired your Majesty's letter to give her an opportunity
for calling together some members of the three
estates of the realm, and placing before them your
Majesty's communication with the reason for coming
to a decision, and so with the accord of these deputies
to arrange the marriage with Robert. The deputies
would be three bishops, six peers, and ten or twelve
deputies of cities, all of them confidants of Robert
and informed of the Queen's wish. This is now being
arranged, and they have already ordered to be called
together in some provinces the people who usually
have the management of public affairs in order to
form this deputation. The sum of it all is that Cecil
and these heretics wish to keep the Queen bound and
subject to their will, and forced to maintain their
heresies, and although she sees that the heretics treat
her very badly, especially the preachers, and that
Robert is more disliked by them than by the
Catholics, she dare not go against Cecil's advice
because she thinks that both sides would then rise
up against her. Robert is very displeased at all
this, and has used great efforts (persuaded thereto by
Sidney) to cause the Queen to make a stand, and
free herself from the tyranny of these people, and
throw herself entirely on your Majesty's favour. I
do not think, however, that he has been able to
prevail upon her, and as he is faint-hearted, and his
favour is founded on vanity, he dare not break with
the Queen, as I understand he has been advised to
do by the Earl of Pembroke, who is of the same
opinion as Sidney, and says that Robert should ask
her either to marry him before Easter, (which she
might well do with your Majesty's favour) or give
him leave to go to the wars in your Majesty's
service. But he is carrying on the negotiations as
the Queen wishes, although he thinks she is mistaken,
E.M.S. N
178 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
and in the meanwhile he is waiting to see what can
be done by means of your Majesty's reply, whilst
Cecil is arranging this deputation as he pleases. I
would beg your Majesty to instruct me how I should
act if no reply has been sent to my last two letters.
Dudley's hopes revived when Quadra told him a few days
later of Philip's friendly message. " He was excessively
overjoyed and could not cease saying how much he desired
to serve your Majesty. It appears as if he had made up his
mind to be a worthy man and gain respect, and when I told
him your Majesty was glad to hear of his intention to try to
restore religion in the country, he answered me at once,
without stopping to think, that it was true he had that
intention, as also had the Queen, who desired nothing else
but to see herself free from these dissensions and her country
tranquil." l Quadra's hopes were rudely shattered, however,
when, a little later, Elizabeth flatly refused to receive the
Papal Nuncio. His annoyance shows that he realised only
too well how completely Cecil and his friends, if not
Elizabeth herself, had hoodwinked him over " these conver-
sations."
BISHOP QUADRA. TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
June 30, 1561.
On the 3rd instant I gave your Majesty an account
of affairs here since the decision of the Queen about
the visit of the Nuncio, and the news now is that
Waldegrave and his wife and Wharton2 and some more
of the Catholics, recently arrested, have been sentenced
to the penalty provided by the statute for hearing
mass. Although the sentence was pronounced at
Westminster with all the solemnity usual in cases of
treason, nothing was found against them but the
hearing of mass. They also degraded five or six
clergymen as wizards and necromancers, in whose
possession were found calculations of nativity of the
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 195.
2 Sir Edward Waldegrave and Sir Thomas Wharton, two members
of Queen Mary's Privy Council.
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 179
Queen and Lord Robert, and I know not what other
curiosities of the sort, but all of small importance
except in the hands of those who were glad to jeer at
them.
On the day of St. John the Queen ordered
me to be invited to a feast given by Lord Robert,
and, touching these sentences, I asked her Majesty
whether her councillors and secretaries were not
nearly tired of mocking Catholics, and if they had
done any great service to the State in the efforts they
had made to discover plots. She replied that the Secre-
tary was certainly not to blame, and the others might
say as they pleased, but it could not be denied that your
Majesty had done good to all and harm to none in
the country, and much more to the same effect. I
still showed that I was offended and dissatisfied at
her Council in general, and advised her to take care
what she did, and not to surrender herself to men so
fanatical as these, and especially in what concerned
religion, directly or indirectly, because if she did she
would never succeed in pacifying her Kingdom. I
said much to the same effect which she listened to
with her usual patience, and with many thanks.
In the afternoon we went on board a vessel from
which we were to see the rejoicings, and she, Robert,
and I being alone on the gallery, they began joking,
which she likes to do much better than talking about
business. They went so far with their jokes that
Lord Robert told her, that, if she liked, I could be the
minister to perform the act of marriage, and she,
nothing loath to hear it, said she was not sure whether
I knew enough English. I let them jest for a time,
but at last spoke to them in earnest, and told them
that if they listened to me they could extricate them-
selves from the tyranny of the councillors who had
taken possession of the Queen and her affairs, and
could restore to the country the peace and unity it so
much needed by re-instating religion. If they did
this they could effect the marriage they spoke of, and
I should be glad, in such case, to be the minister to
N 2
i8o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
perform it, and they might punish severely those who
did not like it, as they could do anything with your
Majesty on their side. As things were now I did not
think the Queen would be able to marry except when
and whom Cecil and his friends might please. I
enlarged on this point somewhat because I see that,
unless Robert and the Queen are estranged from this
gang of heretics that surround them, they will continue
as heretofore ; and if God ordain that they should fall
out with them I should consider it an easy thing to
do everything else we desire. I think of persevering
in this course because, if I keep away from the Queen
and discontinue these conversations, it will only leave
a clear field to the heretics and play their game ;
whilst, by keeping in with her, I not only maintain
her friendliness to your Majesty, but have still some
hope of persuading her, especially if these heretics do
anything to offend her. I know they are furious at
my having the Queen's ear and keeping friendly with
Lord Robert, and in case your Majesty should think
that this course might in some way prejudice the
Catholics, I beg your Majesty to be reassured in that
respect, and to believe that if I have any understand-
ing at all I am employing it in keeping this business
well in hand, as may be seen any day by the affection
these Catholics have for your Majesty, whom they
greatly desire. Only three days ago the persons of
whom your Majesty has heard on other occasions
sent to inform me that their party was never so strong
as now, and that of the Queen never so unpopular
and detested.
Elizabeth was now in the full bloom of her womanhood,
and made the most of it. One of the Imperial agents,
Coloredo by name, returned to Vienna from England about
this period with her portrait for the Archduke Charles, and
spoke with enthusiasm of her " exceeding beauty." He also
declared " that she lives a life of magnificence and festivity
such as can hardly be imagined, and occupies a great portion
of her time with balls, banquets, hunting, and similar amuse-
THE TRAGEDY OF AMY ROBSART 181
ments with the utmost possible display ; but nevertheless she
insists upon far greater respect being shown to her than was
exacted by the late Queen Mary ; and although she has sum-
moned Parliament, she has nevertheless ordered that her
commands are to be executed notwithstanding that these may
be contrary to the will of Parliament itself." l
It may not be inappropriate to close this chapter with a
Venetian's picture of England itself at the same period.
This is included in the report presented to " the most August
Signory," by Michiel Surian :
England is the most wealthy and powerful of all
the kingdoms of the north, and although the Crown
levies small import duties (usually about 100,000
ducats), it has nevertheless sufficient supplies under
ordinary circumstances for the public service both in
time of peace and also in time of war, because in time
of war subsidies, great and small, are levied upon
owners of property according to the assessment of
individuals appointed for that purpose ; and the sums
fixed are paid within two months without any com-
plaint or the slightest tumult, notwithstanding, as has
happened frequently, that the amount has reached
one million and a half of gold. The power of the
country consists in its number of warlike men, and in
the strength of its fleet, in which respect this kingdom
is superior to all its neighbours, and also in the
advantage of its natural position, which is easy to
defend and difficult to attack. But from the dis-
position of the people, and from the incapacity of the
Council, the kingdom has lately suffered more detri-
ment than advantage from the above forces, for
Calais has been lost because no steps were taken in
time to provide against the danger, and the country
itself is weakened by many intestine discords.
The English are universally partial to novelty,
hostile to foreigners, and not very friendly amongst
themselves ; they attempt to do everything that comes
into their heads, just as if all that the imagination
1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 659.
182 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
suggests could be easily executed ; hence a greater
number of insurrections have broken out in this
country than in all the rest of the world, the most
recent of these being that raised by Thomas Stafford,
nephew of the Cardinal [Pole], who endeavoured to
obtain the kingdom with only sixty men brought by
him from France, and he paid the penalty of his
temerity. From the same cause has arisen the
change of faith, which is the greatest alteration that
could possibly arise in a nation, because besides the
offence which is thus committed against our Lord
God, a revolution in customs, laws, obedience, and,
lastly, in the very State itself, necessarily follows, as
has happened in Asia, Africa, Germany, and in a
great part of Europe.
Hence also have resulted many depositions of great
men and promotions of the unworthy, many imprison-
ments, exiles, and deaths. It is also a fact, incredible
though true, namely, that during the last twenty years
three Princes of the blood, four Dukes, forty Earls,
and more than three thousand other persons have
died by violent death. It may therefore be easily
imagined that no foreigner could rule this kind of
people, when even their own countrymen are not
safe, yet nevertheless the King [Philip] used every
endeavour and every means suggested by his father
and his friends to acquire authority over them. To
obtain their favour he showed himself most gracious
towards all ; he trusted his own life in their hands ;
he professed openly to require nothing from them ;
he spent money freely amongst all classes ; he reduced
the Council of the Queen from the old number of
twenty-five to six confidential persons only ; and he
did everything he possibly could without resorting to
force. . . . Queen Elizabeth, who has succeeded to
the throne, owing to her courage and to her great
power of mind, being similar to that of the King her
father, declines to rely upon anyone save herself,
although she is most gracious to all.
CHAPTER V
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING
Mary Stuart and her Matrimonial Chances — Her Scottish Subjects
Ready to Restore their Allegiance and Support her Claim to
the English Succession — Mary Granted Freedom of Worship
and Arranges to Return — Lethington's Assurance of Fidelity —
Mary Still Declines to Ratify the Treaty — Elizabeth's Warning
to the Scottish Estates — She Declines Mary a Safe Conduct
through England — Her Refusal to Recognise Mary's Claim —
Knox Warns Elizabeth Against his own Sovereign — Lady
Catherine Grey's Disgrace — Mary Stuart's Return — Final Inter-
views with Throckmorton — Farewell to France — Her Reception
in Scotland — Knox Makes her Weep — Rival Queens in the
Marriage Market — A Famous Letter from Knox — Enter Darnley
— Lady Lennox under Arrest — Secret Proposal of Marriage
to Mary — Cecil's Lament — Frank Correspondence Between
Mary and Elizabeth — Scandalous Tales of Scottish Bishops —
Ascham's Portrait of Elizabeth.
WHILE Elizabeth was playing her own game with love
and diplomacy in England, Mary Stuart was recovering her
health and spirits at Rheims and elsewhere under the tender
care of her kinsfolk of the House of Guise. She had now
joined Elizabeth among the world's richest prizes in the
matrimonial market, and the fact that Mary's list of suitors
rivalled hers in length and variety did not serve to improve
their prospects of reconciliation. There was some talk of
marrying Mary to her young brother-in-law, Charles IX., as
Catherine of Arragon had married Henry VIII. after the
death of his elder brother, Prince Arthur, but this plan would
have involved the return to power of the Guises, which
Catherine de' Medici wished to avoid at all costs. The
alliance most threatening to English interests was that
suggested with Don Carlos, the " vicious young lunatic," as
Martin Hume calls him, who was Philip's only son by his
first wife, and now some fifteen years old. This match
would have thrown all the weight of Spanish influence in
favour of Mary Stuart's claim to the English throne. As it
happened, Catherine de' Medici wanted Don Carlos for her
184 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
own daughter, Margaret ; so Mary's choice, apparently, lay
between the Earl of Arran, who was most fancied by
Catherine as a likely puppet in the hands of France, and a
dazzling assortment of foreign Princes, crowned and other-
wise.
Her sorrows softened the hearts of her Scottish subjects,
at a time when their amour propre was still smarting from
Elizabeth's refusal of their formal offer of Arran as a means
of joining the two kingdoms in the holy bonds of matrimony.
After all, Mary Stuart was their lawful Queen, and now that
there was little chance of French interference, the bulk of
them were prepared to restore their allegiance, and — since
Elizabeth had declined to marry a Scot — to support the
Stuart claim to the English succession. " We all begin to
enter into some devotion towards our Sovereign Lady,"
wrote Lethington to Cecil, scenting danger in the sense of
security which had " lulled us asleep " since the death of
Francis II. "I fear," he added, " many simple men shall be
carried away with vain hope, and brought abed with fair
words."1
Protestants and Catholics alike ardently sought the return
of their widowed Queen, and sent rival deputations to France
to probe her mind and win her consent. The Catholics,
hoping for the immediate restoration of their faith, com-
missioned John Lesley, the future historian and Bishop of
Ross, to persuade her to land at Aberdeen, where they pro-
mised to meet her with 20,000 men, and march on Edinburgh.
The Protestants dispatched her half-brother, Lord James
Stuart, bidding her return in the name of the Scottish
Parliament, and promising her both an honourable reception
and loyalty if she would consent to rule under the spiritual
guidance of the reformed religion. In the existing state of
affairs in France, with the Guises fallen from power, and the
new rulers flirting with the Reformation, it needed a heroine
with a more fanatical readiness for a martyr's crown than
ever Mary Stuart possessed to champion the Catholic cause
in Scotland at that moment, supported as she would be only
by her own defeated subjects. Lesley's offer, therefore, was
gratefully declined. It must have been a bitter humiliation
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 510.
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 185
to Mary to realise, as her astute uncles doubtless pointed
out, that her only hope now lay among subjects who
had allied themselves to her natural enemy, and openly
flouted her faith. Having, therefore, received an assur-
ance that the Congregation would grant her personal
freedom of worship, she declared her willingness to return.
Whether Lord James was the traitor that some writers
would have us believe, not only in telling Throckmorton, on
his way home, the details of the interview, but also, it is
alleged, in advising Elizabeth to capture Mary on her voyage
to Scotland, is a debatable point which is discussed by
Dr. Hay Fleming at length, if not conclusively, in his " Mary
Queen of Scots." The alleged treachery with Elizabeth, he
points out, is "inconsistent with Lesley's statement that
Lord James hastened home to prepare for her early and
honourable reception, and is still more inconsistent with
the remarkable letter concerning the English succession,
addressed by the maligned Commendator of St. Andrews to
Elizabeth on August 6." This letter will be found in its
chronological order, beginning on p. 189. A much longer
letter addressed to Mary herself on June 10 (printed in
Philippson's " Marie Stuart," Vol. III., pp. 435 — 43) proves
that he made no attempt to conceal these much debated
interviews with the English ambassador of the English Queen.
Meantime Mary, having been advised by her uncles to use
Lethington " most tenderly in all her affairs," though he had
deserted her mother to support the rebels, as well as " to
repose most upon them of the reformed religion,"1 sent him
the following reply to his assurance of fidelity, and excuses
for past dealings with Cecil and Elizabeth. The exact
terms of his letter offering service can only be judged by
Mary's answer :
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS TO WILLIAM MAITLAND
OF LETHINGTON.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
PARIS, June 30, 1561.
Lethington — I have your letter of the loth of this
month. If you employ yourself in my service, and
show the good will whereof you assure me, you need
1 "Memoirs of Sir James Melville," pp. 88 — 9.
186 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
not fear calumniators or talebearers, for such have no
part with me. I look to results before believing all
that is told me. For the scruple that may arise from
your acquaintance in England, it will cease with your
intelligence there, and is easy to remedy if you wish.
Forasmuch as you have been the principal instrument
and negotiator of all practices that my nobles have
had there, if you wish (that besides forgetting all past
offences, as I have written before) that I should in
good earnest trust and employ you, cause the hostages
now in that country to be withdrawn, and busy
yourself in undoing what you have brought about
therein, so that I may be assured of your good affec-
tion. You have the knowledge and skill to do more
than that, for nothing passes among my nobility
without your knowledge and advice. I will not
conceal from you that if anything goes wrong after I
trust you, you are he whom I shall blame first.
I wish to live henceforth in amity and good neigh-
bourhood with the Queen of England, and am on the
point of leaving for my realm, where I hope to be at
the time I announced by the Prior of St. Andrews. On
arriving, I shall need some money for my household
and other expenses. There must be a good year's
profit from my mint and also other casualties. You
will pleasure me by having it ready from some quarter
or another, and for all that give me notice. I saw
by your letters you had published and executed those
I lately sent you as to the alienation of church lands.
For my further intentions, being on my departure, I
remit them to my arrival, when I see and hear from
you how things have passed both before and since
the troubles.
The news of Mary's approaching return without ratifying
the Treaty of Edinburgh was gall and wormwood to Eliza-
beth, whose ambassadors had again tried in vain to get her
signature shortly before the arrival of the Scottish delegates.
" But she made answer," wrote Michiel Surian, " that during
her Consort's life everything was governed by his Council,
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 187
and now that he was dead, before treating anything, she
must make a Council of those of her Kingdom, with which
she must rule." l Elizabeth accordingly warned the Scottish
Estates that they would have cause to repent it if they sup-
ported her in her " breach of solemn promise." The original
draft of this letter is in Cecil's hand much corrected :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE ESTATES OF SCOTLAND.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
July i, 1561.
We doubt not but as our meaning is and hath been
always since our reign, in the sight of Almighty God,
straight and direct towards the advancement of His
honour and truth in religion, and thus for peace and
concord betwixt these two realms, so also our outward
acts have declared the same to the world and you our
neighbours, who have tasted and proved our good will
more we think than any of your ancestors, yea more
than many of yourselves could have hoped for !
Though at the beginning of your troubles, the jealousy
and malice of divers both there and abroad, suspected
us of meaning to surprise the realm and deprive your
Queen of her crown, or to make the monarchy a
commonwealth, yet the end showed our meaning was
to establish our cousin and sister in her state, then in
the hands of strangers ; and though no words could
satisfy the malicious, yet our deeds declare nothing
was sought but restitution to the ancient liberty, as
the solemn treaty at Edinburgh last year by our and
your Queen's commissioners testifies. Yet your Sove-
reign, either not knowing her own felicity, or seduced
by perverse counsel, forbears, though sundry times
required by us, to ratify the same, and makes dilatory
answers, and would have us delay till she returns to
her country. We must plainly let you all understand
that this manner of answer without fruit, cannot long
content us. Our meaning to your sovereign has been
good, we stayed her realm from danger, and have
kept peace hitherto, as we promised. We think it
1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 301.
188 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
strange she has no better advice, and require you all
the Estates of the realm, to consider the matter
deeply, and make answer whereto we may trust. If
you support her breach of solemn promise, we shall
accept your answer, and doubt not but, by the grace
of God, you shall repent it. If you will have it kept, we
promise you the like, and all shall go well with your
Queen, yourselves and posterities. Advertise us of
your mind, specially if it is for peace, and if you for-
bear any long time to advertise us ye shall give to us
some occasion of doubt, whereof more hurt may grow
than good.
Elizabeth was still pestered by the matrimonial advances
of the King of Sweden, who did not mind much, apparently,
whether he married the English or the Scottish Queen.
Cecil's letter on the subject also throws a certain amount of
light on Lord James's subsequent proposals to Elizabeth on
behalf of Mary's pretensions to the English throne :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR NICHOLAS
THROCKMORTON.
["Hardwicke State Papers"}
LONDON, July 14, 1561.
. . . The Queen's Majesty hath plainly written to
this King, that considering she is not as yet disposed
to marriage, she doubteth whether in coming, and
not obtaining his suit, he should change his love into
offence ; and therefore I think, upon the receipt of
these lines he will stop. I am most sorry of all that
her Majesty is not disposed seriously to marriage, for
I see likelihood of great evil both to this State, and
to the most of the good particular persons, if she
shall not shortly marry. There hath been a matter
secretly thought of, which I dare communicate to
you, although I mean never to be an author thereof;
and that is, if an accord might be made betwixt our
Mistress and the Scottish Queen, that this should,
by Parliament in Scotland, etc., surrender unto the
Queen's Majesty all matter of claim, and to the heirs
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 189
of her body ; and in consideration thereof, the Scottish
Queen's interest should be acknowledged in default
of heirs of the body of the Queen's Majesty.
Well, God send our Mistress a husband, and in time
a son, that we may hope our posterity shall have a
masculine succession. This matter is too big for
weak folks, and too deep for simple. The Queen's
Majesty knoweth of it, and so I will end.
I have advertised the Lords of Scotland of the
Queen's answer to D'Oyssel. De Seurre said yester-
day, privately, that he looked for such an answer as
this was. Yesternight, I thank the Queen's Majesty,
she took a supper at my rude new cottage, wherein I
thought my costs well bestowed for her gracious
acceptance of all my offers. Sir Thomas Challoner
is putting himself in order to go into Spain to take
Mr. Chamberlain's place, and now it resteth to com-
pass your coming home. I am had here in continual
jealousy, and you in like mistrust.
Lord James did not realise on what dangerous ground he
was treading when he attempted to compromise matters with
Elizabeth, after she had declined to promise Mary a safe
conduct through England on her journey north until she had
signed the treaty. Elizabeth had made herself perfectly
clear on this much-discussed point. To D'Oyssel she wrote on
July 15 that, " finding no answer from the Queen of Scotland
but delay, she requires the ratification of their late treaty,
which if performed, she will gratify any reasonable request
for passing through her realm, and, if it likes the said Scottish
Queen, will give order for a friendly meeting between them
for corroboration of their amity " l :
LORD JAMES STUART TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, August 6, 1561.
My earnest desire to see the intelligence betwixt
these two realms long endure, moves me deeply to
consider how, on one part, it may be increased, on
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.
ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
the other, what are the chief impediments to be
avoided. For the increase, I doubt not but con-
formity of religion, neighbourhood sustained by mutual
good offices, and the very necessity of the case, will
daily promote it. Indeed, seeing for the subjects' part,
the old enmity of these two nations is by God's pro-
vidence miraculously converted to reciprocal good
will, and both desire a friendly conjunction : I see
not what could impede it, if the heads could so
heartily be joined in love as be the members, I mean
your Majesty and the Queen my sovereign lady —
betwixt whom I find many natural causes, and
straight bonds of amity, and but one root from which
any variance can grow. You be tender cousins, both
Queens in the flower of your ages, much resembling
other in most excellent and goodly qualities, on whom
God hath bestowed most liberally the gifts of nature
and fortune. Your sex will not permit you to advance
your glory by war and bloodshed, but in that of a
peaceable reign. Neither of you is ignorant from
what root the contrary affection proceeds ; whereon
before I touch, I shall crave pardon of my boldness,
which proceeds only from the good will of him who of
all the subjects in both realms, hath, as appeareth to
me, most interest to wish that your two Majesties
were joined in most tender familiarity.
I wish to God the Queen my sovereign lady had
never by any advice taken in head to pretend interest
or acclaim any title to your Majesty's realm, for then
I am fully persuaded you would have been and con-
tinued as dear friends as you be tender cousins — but
now since on her part something hath been thought
of it, and first motioned when the two realms were
in war together (your Majesty knoweth it) I fear that
unless the root may be removed, it shall ever breed
unkindness betwixt you. Your Majesty cannot yield,
and she may on the other part think of it hard, being
so nigh of the blood of England, to be made a stranger
from it ! If any mid way could be picked out to
remove this difference to both your contentments,
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 191
then it is like we could have a perpetual quietness. I
have long thought of it, and never durst communicate
it to the Queen my sovereign, nor many of my country-
men ; nor yet will hereafter follow it further than
shall seem good to your Majesty. The matter is
higher than my capacity is able to compass, yet upon
my simple overture your Highness can lay a more
large foundation. What, if your Majesty's title did
remain untouched, as well for yourself as the issue of
your body ? Inconvenient were it to provide that to
the Queen my sovereign her own place were reserved
in the succession of the Crown of England ? Which
your Majesty will pardon me, if I take to be next by
the law of all nations, as she that is next in lawful
descent of the right line of King Henry the Seventh
your grandfather — and in the meantime this isle to be
united in perpetual friendship. The succession of
realms comes by God's appointment at His good
pleasure, and no provision of man can alter what He
has determined, but it must needs come to pass ! Yet
it appears that without injury to any party, this
accord might bring us great quietness. Everything
must have some beginning, and if I may receive
answer from your Majesty that you can allow it, I will
travail to bring my sovereign to some conformity ; if
you mislike it, I will no farther meddle therewith. . . .
Protesting in the presence of God that this my over-
ture proceedeth of no other intent, nor tendeth to any
other end, than to the continuance of the intelligence
begun, which I wish rather to do (?) than see in any
point violated.
Elizabeth's refusal is understandable when read in the
light of Cecil's " Minutes for the Queen's Person, March
1561 " printed in the Burghley Papers, in which all manner of
rules for guarding against poison are laid down for her
Majesty's safety. She had reason to suspect that her enemies
were only waiting for the appointment of her successor —
especially of one who was the chief hope of the Catholics of
both England and Scotland — to find some ready means of
IQ2 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
removing her from their path. Therein, probably, lay the
real secret of the long feud which could only end with the
death of one or other of the rival Queens.
Knox, still anxious to win his way into Elizabeth's good
graces, did not hesitate to accuse his own sovereign of sinister
designs against her, though obviously his real object in
writing the following letter was to mitigate the offence of his
notorious " First Blast of the Trumpet " :
JOHN KNOX TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, August 6, 1561.
Grace from God the Father through our Lord
Jesus, with perpetual increase of His Holy Spirit.
Please your Majesty, it is here certainly spoken that
the Queen of Scotland travaileth earnestly to have a
treatise entitled " The First Blast of the Trumpet,"
confuted by the censure of the learned in divers
realms ; and further that she laboureth to inflame the
hearts of princes against the writer. And because it
may appear that your Majesty hath interest : that she
mindeth to travail with your Grace's council and
learned men, for judgment against such a common
enemy to women, and to their regiment [rule]. It
were but foolishness in me to prescribe to your
Majesty what is to be done in anything — especially in
what men think touches myself — but of one thing I
think myself assured, and therefore I dare not con-
ceal it, — to wit, that neither doth our sovereign so
greatly fear her own estate by reason of that book,
nor yet doth she so unfeignedly favour the tranquillity
of your Majesty's reign and realm, that she would
take so great and earnest pains unless her crafty
council, in so doing, shot at a farther mark. Two
years ago I wrote unto your Majesty my full declara-
tion touching that work ; experience since hath shown
that I am not desirous of innovations, so that Christ
Jesus be not in His members openly trodden under
the feet of the ungodly. With further purgation
I will not trouble your Majesty for the present.
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 193
Beseeching the Eternal so to assist your Highness in
all affairs that in His sight ye may be found acceptable,
your regiment profitable to your commonwealth, and
your facts to be such that justly they may be praised
of all godly, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus, to
whose mighty protection I unfeignedly commit your
Majesty.
Knox was neither shy of warning a rival Queen against
his own Sovereign, nor of giving advice on occasion which,
to say the least of it, was questionable, coming from the lips
of one who, like Caesar's wife, should have been above
suspicion. When English aid was so sorely needed by the
Lords of the Congregation before Leith, and Elizabeth had
not definitely thrown in her lot with the rebels, he had made
the following crafty suggestion to Croft : " The sending of
a thousand or more men to us can break no league or peace
contracted between you and France, for it is free for your
subjects to serve in war any prince or nation for their wages,
and if you fear that such excuses shall not prevail, you may
declare them rebels to your realm when you shall be assured
that they are in our company."1
In the midst of the fears occasioned by Mary's return
came the discovery of what Elizabeth believed to be another
plot against her throne through the person of Lady Catherine
Grey, whom we have already seen as a not unwilling tool
in the hands of the Spanish Ambassadors. Apart from her
Catholic leanings Catherine Grey was always distrusted by
Elizabeth as the next heir to the crown after herself
should she die childless, according to the terms of Henry
the Eighth's will. Distrust turned to hatred when Catherine
confessed, as a result of becoming enceinte, that she had
secretly married the Earl of Hertford, the eldest son of the
Protector Somerset. It was no longer treason for anyone
of royal blood to marry without the Sovereign's consent,
but, as will be seen in Quadra's next letter, there was reason
to suspect that the affair was not unconnected with some
deep political design, and Lady Catherine was at once
committed to the Tower. Hertford soon followed her there,
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 256.
E.M.S. O
194 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
summoned post-haste from Paris ; the marriage was
declared invalid, and the child to be born illegitimate.
Cecil's letter, containing the first wind of this unhappy
romance, is also important for its refutation of the charge
made against Elizabeth of having sent a fleet to intercept
Mary Stuart, with the veiled hope, as Froude suggests, that
the English admiral — whoever he might be — would un-
wittingly send her ship with its freight to the bottom of
the North Sea. Mary was now preparing for the voyage
which she had determined to make to Scotland direct, since
Elizabeth would not permit her to pass through England
without first signing the obnoxious Treaty :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO THE EARL OF SUSSEX.
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times."]
August 12, 1561.
The loth of this at Ipswich, was a great mishap
discovered. The Lady Catherine is certainly known
to be big with child, as she saith, by the Earl of
Hertford, who is in France. She is committed to
the Tower. He is sent for. She saith that she was
married to him secretly before Christmas last.
Thus is God displeased with us. The Scottish
Queen was the loth of this month at Boulogne, and
meaneth to take shipping at Calais. Neither those
in Scotland nor we here do like her going home.
The Queen's Majesty hath three ships in the north
seas to preserve the fishers from pirates. I think
they will be sorry to see her pass.
The Queen's Majesty doth well, thanked be God,
although not well quieted with this mishap of the
Lady Catherine.
Your Lordship's to command,
W. CECIL.
Elizabeth herself wrote to assure Mary of the falseness
of the report that she meant to intercept her, even while
Lethington was pouring scorn upon Cecil's head for neglecting
such a golden opportunity of capturing his Queen. " If two
galleys may quietly pass," he wrote, " I wish the passport
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 195
had been liberally granted. To what purpose should you
open your pack and sell more of your wares, or declare
yourselves enemies to those whom you cannot offend ? " l
Elizabeth, however, was now relying upon the Scottish
Council to see justice done in the matter of the Treaty, and
Mary's promise, sent by Lord St. Colme, that she would
follow her Council's advice, led to " friendly and sisterly
offers of friendship " which, on the surface at least, augured
well for the future :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
August 1 6, 1561.
Lord St, Colme brought us your letters dated the
8th of this present at Abbeville, signifying, that
although by our answer to you by M. D'Oyssel, ye
doubted our amity, yet after certain purposes passed
betwixt you and our ambassador, ye assured us of
your good meaning, and required credit for St. Colme,
who has declared to us the same excuse for not
ratifying the treaty as yourself did to our ambassador
— whom we have briefly answered, as he can show
you. If he shall not do so, lest you thought your
reasons had satisfied us, summarily we assure you
your answer is no satisfaction ; we only require per-
formance of your promise, whereto ye are bound by
your seal and hand — in your own power as Queen
of Scotland — which yourself, in words confess, con-
cluded by your late husband's and your own ambas-
sadors, to which your own nobility and people were
privy, and without which no amity can continue.
Yet seeing by the report of the bringer, that ye mean
forthwith on coming home, to follow the advice of
your Council there, we suspend our conceit of all
unkindness, and assure you we be fully resolved on
performance thereof, to unite in sure amity, and live
with you in the knot of friendship, as we are in that
of nature and blood. And herein we are so earnestly
determined, that if the contrary follow (which God
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 544.
O 2
ig6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
forbid) the world shall see the occasion to be in you,
not in us ; as the story witnesseth the like of the
King your father, our uncle, whom evil councillors
advised against meeting our father at York to con-
clude a perpetual bond : whereof we know witnesses
remain with us, and some (we think) with you. For
the report that we had sent our admiral and navy
to impeach your passage : your servants know its
falseness, and that we have only two or three small
barques at sea, to apprehend certain Scottish pirates
haunting our seas under pretence of letters of marque :
whereto we were almost compelled by the complaint
of the Spanish Ambassador. On this matter we
earnestly require your consideration at coming to
your realm — the rather for respect that should be
betwixt Scotland, our realm, France, Spain, and the
House of Burgundy. Recommending us to you with
the request not to neglect this our friendly and
sisterly offers of friendship, which before God we
mean and intend to accomplish.
This "sisterly" letter did not reach Mary in time to
prevent anxiety on the score of her voyage from adding to
the sadness of saying good-bye to the fair land of France
in which the happiest years of her life had been spent. If
her preparations had not been so far advanced, she told
Throckmorton, his mistress's unkindness might have stayed
her passage, but now she was determined to sail at all costs.
Of his last interviews with the widowed Queen, Throckmorton
sent Elizabeth a vivid account in diary form, which, though
slightly out of chronological order, deserves quoting at length
for its clear statement of Mary's case in her own words, as
well as for its involuntary tribute to her dauntless spirit :
SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO QUEEN
ELIZABETH.
[" Cabala," yd Edition, 1691.]
PARIS, July 26, 1561.
The 2Oth of this present, in the afternoon, I had
access to the Queen of Scotland, with whom I found
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 197
M. D'Oyssel talking when I entered into her chamber.
She dismissed him and rose from her chair when she
saw me ; unto whom I said : " Madam, whereas you
sent lately M. D'Oyssel to the Queen my mistress, to
demand her Majesty's safe conduct for your free
passage by sea into your own realm, and to be
accommodated with such favours as upon events you
might have need of upon the coast of England, and
also did further require the free passage of the said
M. D'Oyssel into Scotland through England, the
Queen my mistress hath not thought good to suffer
the said M. D'Oyssel to pass into Scotland, nor to
satisfy your desire for your passage home, neither for
such other favours as you required to be accom-
modated withal at her Majesty's hand, inasmuch as
you have not accomplished the ratification of the
treaty accorded by your deputies in July, now twelve
months ago, at Edinburgh, which in honour you are
bound many ways to perform : for besides that you
stand bound by your hand and seal, whereby your
Commissioners were authorized, it may please you,
Madam, to remember that many promises have been
made for the performance thereof, as well in the
King your husband's time, as by yourself since his
death, and yet notwithstanding the treaty remaineth
unratified, as before, a whole year being expired for
the accord thereof, which by your Commissioners was
agreed to have been ratified within sixty days : so as
upon this unamicable and indirect dealing, the Queen
my mistress hath refused you these favours and
pleasures by you required, and hath grounded this
her Majesty's strangeness unto you upon your own
behaviour, which her Majesty doth uncomfortably,
both because your Majesty is, as she is, a Queen, her
next neighbour, and next kinswoman. Nevertheless,
her Majesty hath commanded me to say unto you,
Madam, that if you can like to be better advised, and
to ratify the treaty, as you in honour are bound to do,
her Majesty will not only give you and yours free
passage, but also will be most glad to see you pass
igS ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
through her realm, that you may be accommodated
with the pleasure thereof, and such friendly conference
may be had betwixt you as all unkindness may be
quenched, and an assured perfect amity betwixt you
both for ever established."
Having said thus much unto her, the Queen sat
down, and made me sit also by her. She then
commanded all the audience to retire them further
off, and said : " Monsieur 1'Ambassador, I know not
well my own infirmity, nor how far I may with my
passion be transported ; but I like not to have so
many witnesses of my passions as the Queen your
mistress was content to have, when she talked with
M. D'Oyssel. There is nothing that doth more grieve
me than that I did so forget myself as to require of
the Queen your mistress that favour which I had no
need to ask. I needed no more to have made her
privy to my journey than she doth me of hers. I
may pass well enough home into my own realm, I
think, without her passport or licence ; for though
the late King your master used all the impeachment
he could both to stay me, and to catch me when I
came hither, yet you know Monsieur I'Ambassador,
I came hither safely : and I may have as good means
to help me home again as I had to come hither, if I
would employ my friends. Truly I was so far from
evil meaning to the Queen your mistress, that at this
time I was more willing to employ her amity to stand
me in stead than all the friends I have ; and yet you
know, both in this realm and elsewhere, I have both
friends and allies, and such as would be glad and
willing to employ both their forces and aid to stand
me in stead. You have, Monsieur I'Ambassador,
oftentimes told me that the amity between the Queen
your mistress and me was very necessary and
profitable for us both. I have some reason now to
think that the Queen your mistress is not of that
mind ; for I am sure, if she were, she would not have
refused me thus unkindly. It seemeth she maketh
more account of the amity of my disobedient subjects
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 199
than she doth of me their sovereign, who am her
equal in degree, though inferior in wisdom and
experience, her nighest kinswoman, and her next
neighbour ; and trow you that there can be so good
meaning between my subjects and her which have
forgotten their principal duty to me their sovereign,
as there should be betwixt her and me ? I perceive
that the Queen your mistress doth think, that because
my subjects have done me wrong, my friends and
allies will forsake me also : indeed your mistress doth
give me cause to seek friendship where I did not
mind to ask it ; but Monsieur 1'Ambassador, let the
Queen your mistress think that it will be thought
very strange among all princes and countries that
she should first animate my subjects against me, and
now being widow, to impeach my going into my own
country. I ask her nothing but friendship ; I do not
trouble her state, nor practice with her subjects : and
yet I know there be in her realm those that be
inclined enough to hear offers. I know also they
be not of the mind she is of, neither in religion,
nor other things. The Queen, your mistress, doth
say that I am young, and do lack experience ; indeed
I confess, I am younger than she is, and do want
experience ; but I have age enough and experience to
use myself towards my friends and kinsfolk friendly
and uprightly ; and I trust my discretion shall not so
fail me that my passion shall move me to use other
language of her than it becometh of a Queen, and my
next kinswoman. Well, Monsieur 1'Ambassador, I
could tell you that I am as she is, a Queen allied and
friended, as is known ; and I tell you also that my
heart is not inferior to hers, so as an equal respect
would be had betwixt us on both parts ; but I will not
contend in comparisons : first, you know that the
accord was made in the late King my Lord and
husband's time ; by whom, as reason was, I was
commanded and governed ; and for such delays as
were then in his time used in the said ratification, I
am not to be charged. Since his death, my interest
200 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
failing in the realm of France, I left to be advised by
the Council of France, and they left me also to mine
own Council ; indeed, my uncles being, as you know,
of the affairs of this realm, do not think meet to
advise me in my affairs ; neither do my subjects, nor
the Queen your mistress, think meet that I should be
advised by them, but rather by the Council of my
own realm. There are none of them, nor any such
as is thought meet that I should be counselled by.
The matter is great ; it toucheth both them and me ;
and in so great a matter it were meet to use the
advice of the wisest of them. I do not think it meet
in so great a matter to take the counsel of private
and unexpert persons, and such as the Queen your
mistress knoweth be not most acceptable to such of
my subjects as she would have me be advised by. I
have oftentimes told you, that as soon as I had their
advices, I would send the Queen your mistress such
an answer as should be reasonable. I am about to
haste me home as fast as I may, to the intent that
the matter might be answered ; and now the Queen
your mistress will in no wise suffer either me to pass
home, or him that I sent into my realm. So as
Monsieur 1'Ambassador it seemeth the Queen your
mistress will be the cause why in this manner she is
not satisfied, or else she will not be satisfied ; but
liketh to make this matter a quarrel still betwixt us,
whereof she is the author. The Queen your mistress
saith, that I am young ; she might as well say that I
were as foolish as young, if I would, in the State and
Country that I am in, proceed to such a matter of
myself, without any counsel ; for that which was done
by the King my late Lord and husband must not be
taken to be my act ; so as neither in honour, nor in
conscience, I am bound, as you say I am, to perform
all that I was by my Lord and husband commanded
to do ; and yet I will say truly unto you, and as God
favours me, I did never mean otherwise unto her than
becometh me to my good sister and cousin, nor meant
her any more harm than to myself; God forgive them
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 201
which have otherwise persuaded her, if there be any
such. What is the matter, pray you, Monsieur
PAmbassador that doth so offend the Queen your
mistress, to make her thus evil-affected to me ? I
never did her wrong, neither in deed, nor speech. It
should the less grieve me if I had deserved otherwise
than well ; and though the world may be of divers
judgments of us and our doings one to another, I do
well know, God that is in Heaven can and will be a
true Judge, both of our doings and meanings."
I answered : " Madam, I have declared unto you
my charge commanded by the Queen my mistress,
and have no more to say to you on her behalf, but to
know your answer for the ratification of the treaty."
The Queen answered : " I have aforetime showed
you, and do now tell you again, that it is not meet
for to proceed in this matter without the advice of
the nobles and states of mine own realm, which I can
by no means have until I come among them. You
know as well as I, there is none come hither
since the death of the King my late husband and
Lord, but such as are either come for their private
business, or such as dare not tarry in Scotland.
But, I pray you, Monsieur I'Ambassador tell me,
how riseth this strange affection in the Queen your
mistress towards me ? I desire to know it, to the
intent I may reform myself, if I have failed."
I answered : " Madam, I have by the command-
ment of the Queen my mistress, declared unto you
the cause of her miscontelntation already : but seeing
you so desirous to hear how you may be charged
with any deserving, as one that speaketh of mine
own mind, without instruction, I will be so bold,
Madam, by way of discourse, to tell you. As soon
as the Queen my mistress, after the death of her
sister, came to the Crown of England, you bore the
arms of England diversely quartered with your own,
and used in your country notoriously the style and
title of the Queen my mistress, which was never by
you put in use in Queen Mary's time : and if anything
202 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
can be more prejudicial to a prince than to usurp the
title and interest belonging to them, Madam, I do
refer it to your own judgment. You see, such as be
noted usurpers of other folk's states, cannot patiently
be borne withal for such doings. Much more the
Queen my mistress hath cause to be grieved (con-
sidering her undoubted and lawful interest) with the
offer of such injury."
" Monsieur 1'Ambassador," said she, " I was then
under the commandment of King Henry my father,
and of the King my lord and husband ; and whatso-
ever was done then by their order and commandments,
the same was in like manner continued until both
their deaths ; since which time, you know I have
neither borne the arms, nor used the title of England.
Methinks these my doings might ascertain the Queen
your mistress that that which was done before, was
done by commandment of them that had the power
over me ; and also in reason she ought to be satisfied,
seeing I order my doings as I tell you. It were no
great dishonour to the Queen my cousin, your
mistress, though I, as Queen also, did bear the Arms
of England ; for, I am sure, some, inferior to me, and
that be not on every side so well apparented as I am,
do bear the Arms of England. You cannot deny but
that my grandmother was the King her father's sister,
and, I trow, the eldest sister he had. I do assure
you, Monsieur 1'Ambassador, and do speak unto you
truly as I think, I never meant nor thought matter
against the Queen my cousin. Indeed I know what I
am, and would be loath either to do wrong, or suffer
too much wrong to myself: and now that I have told
you my mind plainly, I pray behave yourself betwixt
us like a good Minister, whose part is to make things
betwixt Princes rather better than worse." And so I
took my leave of the said Queen for that time. . . .
To the intent I might the better decipher whether
the Queen of Scotland did mind to continue her
voyage, I did, the 2ist of July, repair to take my
leave of her ; unto whom I then declared that
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 203
inasmuch as I was your Majesty's Ambassador, as
well to her for the matters of Scotland, as to the
French King your good brother, and hearing, by
common bruit, that she minded to take her voyage
very shortly, I thought it my duty to take my leave of
her, and was sorry she had not given your Majesty
so good occasion of amity as that I, your Minister,
could not conveniently wait upon her to her embark-
ing. The said Queen made answer: "Monsieur
1'Ambassador, if my preparations were not so much
advanced as they are, peradventure the Queen your
Mistress's unkindness might stay my voyage ; but
now I am determined to adventure the matter,
whatsoever come of it ; I trust the wind will be so
favourable that I shall not need to come on the coast
of England ; for if I do, then, Monsieur 1'Ambassador,
the Queen your mistress shall have me in her hands
to do her will of me ; and if she be so hard-hearted
as to desire my end, she may then do her pleasure,
and make sacrifice of me. Peradventure that casualty
might be better for me than to live. In this matter
God's Will be fulfilled." I answered, she might
amend all this matter if she would, and find more
amity of your Majesty and your realm than of any
other prince or country. The Queen answered : " I
have, methinketh, offered and spoken that which
might suffice the Queen my sister, if she will take
anything well at my hand. I trust, for all this, we
shall agree better than some would have us ; and for
my part, I will not take all things to the worst. I
hope also the Queen my sister and cousin will do the
like ; whereof I doubt not, if Ministers do no harm
betwixt us." And so the said Queen embraced
me. . . .
The Queen of Scotland departed from St. Germains
yesterday, the 25th of July, towards her voyage, as
she bruiteth it. She sendeth most of her train
straight to Newhaven [Havre] to embark, and herself
goeth such a way between both as she will be at her
choice to go to Newhaven, or to Calais : Upon the
204 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
sudden, what she will do, or where she will embark,
she will make known to never a Scotsman, and but
to few French ; and for all these shows and boasts,
some think she will not go at all ; and yet all her stuff
is sent down to the sea, and none other bruit in her
house but of her hasty going. If it would please your
Majesty to cause some to be sent privily to all the
ports on this side, the certainty shall be better known
to your Majesty that way, by the laying of her vessels,
than I can advertise it hence. She hath said that at
her coming into Scotland, she will forthwith rid the
realm of all the Englishmen there, including your
Majesty's agent, and forbid mutual traffic with your
Majesty's subjects. If she make the haste to embark
that she seemeth to do, she will be almost ready to
embark by that time this shall come to your Majesty's
hands.
It was on August 14 that Mary bade her last farewell to
France, and to the beloved Cardinal and Due de Guise,
whom she was destined never to see again. Three other
uncles embarked with her to see her safely established
among her unknown subjects — Claude, Due d'Aumale,
Rene", Marquis d'Elboeuf, and Francis, the Grand Prior.
Brantome and her four Maries (Mary Seton, Mary Beaton,
Mary Livingstone, and Mary Fleming) also accompanied
her, together with an escort of French and Scottish gentle-
men. The details of her voyage, as Andrew Lang observes,
are "dim as the sea mist which, earlier or later, fell on
Mary's galleons — the protection of heaven, said her friends ;
the warning of an angry God, said Knox." Sailing from
Calais with two galleys and either two or four great ships —
accounts differing on this point — she landed at the pier at
Leith on the morning of the igth, undismayed to find no pre-
parations for her reception, owing to the unexpected hastening
of her departure from France. " The Queen's Majesty's ships
that were upon the seas to cleanse them from pirates," wrote
Cecil to Throckmorton on August 26th, " saw her and
saluted her galleys, and staying her ships examined them of
pirates, and dismissed them gently. One Scottish ship they
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 205
detained, as vehemently suspected of piracy."1 Thankful
no doubt to have escaped the perils of the sea, Mary on
landing rested for awhile in the few rooms which were
hastily prepared for her, before proceeding on her way
to Holyrood Palace. " Incontinent upon the news of
her landing," wrote Randolph to Throckmorton, "the
Duke of Chatelherault arrived first, next Lord James, then
Arran. Since that time the repair has been of all sorts, all
men welcome and well received, good entertainment, great
cheer, fair words."8 Mary's girlish beauty, the unaffected
grace with which she invested every act, and her brave
attempts to adapt herself to all her strange surroundings,
won the hearts of everyone except that of the invincible
John Knox :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times"]
EDINBURGH, September 7, 1561.
. . . Where your Honour exhorteth us to stoutness,
I assure you the voice of one man is able in one hour
to put more life in us than five hundred trumpets
continually blustering in our ears. Mr. Knox spoke
upon Tuesday unto the Queen. He knocked so
hastily upon her heart that he made her weep ; but
well you know there be of that sex those who will do
that as well for anger as for grief, though in this the
Lord James will disagree with me. She charged
him with his book,3 with his severe dealing with all
men that disagreed with him in opinions. She willed
him to use more meekness in his sermons. Some
things he spoke unto her contentation in mitigating
the rigour of his book, and in some things he pleased
her very little ; in special speaking against the Mass
he declared the grievous plagues of God that had
fallen upon all estates for committing of idolatry.
He concluded so in the end with her that he hath
liberty to speak freely his conscience, to give unto
1 Hardwicke State Papers, Vol. I., p. 176.
a Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 547.
8 The embarrassing " First Blast."
206 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
her such reverence as becometh the minister of God
unto the superior powers. He prayeth, and hath
daily prayed, for her as the preachers were wont to
pray for Queen Mary, etc. The bruit that he hath
talked with the Queen maketh the Papists doubt
what will become of the world. It liketh not them
well that I resort so often unto the Court. I have
been there thrice since Sunday. But of all they
marvel most what traffic the Lord of Lethington
maketh with you. She herself hath found three
points necessary to maintain her state ; first to make
peace with England ; next to be served with the
Protestants — in the other she findeth not that she
looked for. The third is to enrich her crown with
the Abbey lands. Which three, if she do, what shall
there lack in her (saving a good husband) to lead a
happy life ? Seeing your Honour hath one with you
with whom you can consider these things better than
I can write of them, I leave them to your judgments
and talk of some other matters.
Upon Tuesday last she made her entry [into Edin-
burgh]. She dined in the Castle. The first sight
that she saw after she came out of the Castle was a
boy of six years of age, who came as it were from
heaven out of a round globe, presenting unto her a
Bible, and Psalter, and the keys of the gates, and
speaking unto her the verses which I send you. The
rest were terrible significations of the vengeance of
God upon idolatry. There were burnt Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram, in the time of their sacrifice. They were
minded to have had a priest burned at the altar, at
the elevation. The Earl of Huntly stayed that
pageant, but hath played many as wicked as that
since he came hither. . . .
Your Honour's always bounden and ready to
command.
THO. RANDOLPH.
It was not enough that Mary issued a proclamation
forbidding any attempt to change the newly established
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 207
religion " until altered by her and the Estates of the Realm."
To Knox, " one Mass was more terrible than ten thousand
armed men," and it roused him to fury to think that she
should be permitted to have her own service in the Chapel
Royal. Her kirk was a harlot, he dared to tell her in a long
theological discussion which he reports at length in his own
" History of the Reformation." Maitland bears witness to
his intolerance in one of his letters to Cecil1:
WILLIAM MAITLAND OF LETHINGTON TO SIR
WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, October 25, 1561.
The Queen my mistress behaves herself so gently
in every behalf as reasonably we can require ; if
anything be amiss the fault is rather in ourselves.
You know the vehemency of Mr. Knox's spirit, which
cannot be bridled, and yet doth sometimes utter such
sentences as cannot easily be digested by a weak
stomach. I would wish he should deal with her
more gently, being a young princess unpersuaded.
For this am I accounted to be too politic ; but surely
in her comporting with him, she doth declare a
wisdom far exceeding her age. God grant her the
assistance of His spirit. Surely I see in her a good
towardness, and think that the Queen your sovereign
shall be able to do much with her in religion, if they
once enter into a good familiarity.
A theological discussion between Mary and Elizabeth
would have been as edifying as that between Mary and
Knox when he called his sovereign's church a harlot to her
face ; but this was not the only occasion on which the hope
was expressed that the English Queen would succeed in
converting her Catholic cousin. Elizabeth at the time,
however, was more anxious about their matrimonial affairs
than the safety of their souls. She even encouraged the
King of Sweden again in order to spoil Mary's chances in
that direction, for she meant to have no more foreign rulers
across the border if she could help it :
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 565.
208 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, September 13, 1561.
The coming of the King of Sweden is still con-
sidered certain, and such preparations are made that
it is difficult to help thinking that he will come. I
have used every effort to find out the secret of this
business, but I can discover nothing more than, as I
have told your Majesty, that the Queen does not
think of marrying him, and is in no pleasure at his
coming. On the contrary, she has lately tried openly
to stop it. Since, however, the Queen of Scotland
decided to go to her kingdom, and the Scottish rebels
did not gather to prevent her passage as this Queen
wished, the latter has determined to dissemble with
the Swede, and let him come, for fear he should
marry her of Scotland. The Queen of England and
her friends therefore wish to appear undecided and
indifferent, and to give the idea that perhaps she may
marry the Swede. Robert is consequently making a
show of being very displeased, which I am sure is not
really the case, as he is in greater favour than ever.
The King of Sweden's ambassador does not fail to
see through this mystery, and says he has informed
his master what he thinks about it, but nevertheless
he is sure he will come, and he concludes that the
only cause of his visit is the great affection he bears
the Queen, and his desire to see her. Your Majesty
may judge how likely it is that a new King, with a
war on his hands, or suspicions of one, and whose
power consists in his money alone, should come so
long a voyage with so little reason, and leave behind
him all his property in the hands of a servant. What
I suspect, and many others think, is that he is being
brought over by the enemies of Robert, and that he is
coming for a settled arrangement ; if not here, then in
Scotland. There is a statement made that an Eng-
lish merchant, named John Dimock, who recently
went to Sweden to sell some jewels to the King, told
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 209
him not to fail to come to England on any account,
as all the realm desired him. Dimock confesses that
he said this on the instructions of Pickering and
Yaxley (of the Queen's chamber.) It will be a strange
thing to me if there is not something important under
this visit if it takes place, for the King's people here
do not seem to me so thoughtless as not to let him know
his error, if his coming here were so purposeless as
they declare. I have already advised your Majesty
of the imprisonment of Lady Catherine, and that the
Queen had summoned the Earl of Hertford, who was
in France. On his arrival, he was examined, and
cast into the Tower. They say he confesses that
Lady Catherine is his wife, and from the form of the
confession and other indications, there is some
suspicion that the marriage was effected with the
connivance and countenance of some of the nobles.
They are now investigating this with all possible
diligence. Great suspicions are entertained of the
Earl of Arundel, with whom Lord Robert has had
such words that the Earl went home, and he and
others are drawing up copies of the testimony given
in the inquiry respecting the death of Lord Robert's
wife. Robert is now doing his best to repair matters,
as it appears that more is being discovered in that
affair than he wished. Some suspicion is also held
of the Earl of Bedford, who is absent from the Court.
They say Robert is to be made Earl of Exeter
(Leicester).
What I understand by it all is that both Lady
Catherine's marriage, and the bringing over of the
King of Sweden, were arranged a year ago, after the
death of Robert's wife, and that Cecil (who was then
in great disgrace with the Queen and at enmity with
Robert) was at the bottom of it, in the fear that, in
accord with common belief, the Queen would marry
Robert and restore religion to obtain your Majesty's
favour. Since Cecil has returned to the good graces of
the Queen, and has satisfied himself that there will be
no change of religion, he has gradually and cautiously
E.M.S. p
210 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
separated himself from these negotiations, and is now
endeavouring to hush up and amend the past, which
he can very well do, as he has absolutely taken
possession of the Queen and Council, but he is so per-
plexed and unpopular that I do not know how he will
be able to stand if there are any disturbances.
What is of most importance now, as I am informed,
is that the Queen is becoming dropsical, and has
already began to swell extraordinarily. I have been
advised of this from three different sources and by a
person who has the opportunity of being an eye wit-
ness. To all appearance she is falling away, and is
extremely thin, and the colour of a corpse. I do not
know whether the coming of this Swede is in conse-
quence of any news he may have received of this
malady of the Queen's, but I do know that the
Marchioness of Northampton, who is in a better
position to judge than anyone else, is very intimate
with the Swedish ambassador, and has received
valuable presents from him. That the Marchioness
and Lady Cobham consider the Queen in a dangerous
condition is beyond doubt, and if they are mistaken I
am mistaken also. I can obtain no more precise
intelligence, but I think there is some foundation for
what I say.
Whilst the talk of this King's coming continues,
the Queen is using every precaution to ensure that
the Queen of Scots shall not marry anyone doubtful.
She is doing this by persuading the Scots not to let
their Queen marry a foreign prince, and offering to
help and favour them if she will do as they (the
English) tried to get her to do after the King of
France died. As the Earl of Arran is interested in
this, and many other Scots will benefit by it, the
Scottish lords have given their Queen to understand
that if she marries a foreigner they will withdraw
their fealty. This news was brought five days ago by
Lethington, who came here nominally about the rati-
fication of peace requested by the Queen of England.
This Lethington is secretary of the Queen of Scots,
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 211
and served the same office last year to the congrega-
tion of rebels, where he managed everything. He
has been welcomed here with his news because, not
only would this marriage with the Earl of Arran be
very advantageous to the Queen of England, as
ensuring her against any present danger from her of
Scotland, but it would be a good example to show the
English that their Queen also might marry a subject.
Lethington returned at once, successful, he said, in the
ratification of peace, but I am quite sure if she (the
Queen of Scots) does not act as her subjects ask her
in the matter of her marriage, that an arrangement
O ' f O
exists between the Scottish lords and this Queen here
to resist her, and to prevent the entrance into the
kingdom of anyone come to marry her.
The reason the Queen of England did not prevent
the Scottish Queen from going to her country, as she
had decided to do, was only because the Earl of Arran
and his band thought best not to slight her too soon,
but considered it wiser to let her come, and then take
possession of her. I also understand that they have
proposed to her to confirm the change of religion
they adopted last year, and, in answer to this, and
also about the marriage, she has told them she must
have time to think carefully, and cannot determine
anything against her conscience. I am afraid they
will press her so much that, if there are no foreign
forces to protect her, her own friends will be unable
to resist the rebels, fostered and countenanced by this
Queen here. Mass is said in her house, but this has
not been done without tumults and disturbances
among the people, which disturbances the heretics
themselves have tried to pacify for the present.
Serious trouble was soon brewing in Edinburgh between
the bigoted zealots of the Kirk and their Catholic Queen.
Lord James and Lethington sided with Mary as far as they
dared, even supporting her when she imprisoned the newly-
elected magistrates of Edinburgh for their gross affront in
issuing a proclamation expelling "monks, friars, priests,
P 2
212 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
nuns, adulterers, and all sic filthy persons," and ordered a
new election. It was this bold stand on Mary's part which
stirred Knox to write the famous letter that follows :
JOHN KNOX TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Haynes. " Burghley Papers."]
EDINBURGH, October 7, 1561.
If God had not so often (right Worshipful) trapped
the men of most singular experience in their own
wisdom, when they have begun more to credit their
own imaginations than the will of God manifestly
revealed, I would have judged your counsel most
wholesome ; but because I find so many examples of
God's punishment in that behalf, I fear to do evil to
them that good may come of it ; and yet, if to suffer
impiety to be committed, which by just power might
have been gainstood and repressed, be to commit
iniquity (as the light of Nature, be it ever so obscured,
doth teach us that it is) then can I not but accuse
myself that I did not more zealously gainstand that
idol at the first erecting. Men delighting to swim
betwixt two waters have often complained upon my
severity, fearing, as it seemed, that the same should
trouble the quietness of brethren. But I do fear
that that which men term lenity and dulciness do
bring upon themselves and others more fearful
destruction than hath ensued the vehemency of any
preacher within this realm.
That our Queen shall be allured by any such
means, as we use it, is altogether contrary to my
judgment, for as I have spoken, so I see in experience
that by permission Satan groweth bold. For now
she feareth not to set forth proclamations contrary to
those that command whoremongers, adulterers, and
idolaters, to be punished according to the former and
established reformation. The Papists, I grant, blow
the bellows, but the faintness of some, flattery of
others, and corrupt affections of such as ought to
withstand such attempts, are like shortly to destroy
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 213
the face of that building which God by his power had
founded among us. This I write from dolor of heart.
Some of no small estimation have said with open
mouth the Queen neither is, neither shall be, of our
opinion ; and in very deed her whole proceedings do
declare that the Cardinal's lessons are so deeply
printed in her heart that the substance and the quality
are like to perish together. I would be glad to be
deceived, but I fear I shall not. In communication
with her I espied such craft as I have not found in
such age. Since, hath the Court been dead to me,
and I to it. One thing I cannot conceal ; too much
bearing is like to break the most strong back, if we
cast not off the burden betimes. To be plain, those
that always have had the favour and estimation of
the most godly, begin to come in contempt because
they open not themselves more stoutly against
impiety. Doubt not but your Council may somewhat
reward the persons. Ye know,, my Lord James and
Lethington, whom if God do not otherwise conduct,
are like to lose that which not without travail hath
heretofore been conquest. At this very instant are
the Provost of Edinburgh and Baillies thereof com-
manded to ward [imprisoned] by reason of their
proclamation against Papists and whoremongers.
The whole blame lyeth upon the necks of the two
forenamed, by reason of their bearing. God deliver
us from the plague, which manifestly appeareth.
Thus being troubled I have troubled your Honour,
whom I commit to the protection of the Omnipotent.
Yours to command in Godliness,
JOHN KNOX.
Darnley now appears on the scene for the first time in
a letter from Quadra written at the time of his mother's
imprisonment in 1561, when he was sixteen, and Mary three
years older. The subject is introduced by an incident
which shows — though the scare referred to proved unfounded
— how uneasy lay the head which wore a crown in those
unsettled days :
214 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, November 27, 1561.
In conversation with the Queen about the intelligence
written from France by a certain J uan Battista Beltran, a
native of Venice, to the effect that the Duke of Nemours
had tried to abduct the Duke of Orleans and poison the
Duke of Vendome, I said that the first seemed most
improbable for several reasons, and as to the second,
it was not by any means to be believed of a gentle-
man like the Duke, and above all on the statement of
such a man as this Beltran, whom I knew well as
being unworthy of credit. She asked me a great
many questions about him, and seeing that I answered
frankly she said she wished to divulge a secret of me,
which was that when Beltran was here some months
ago he had informed her that your Majesty was trying
to have her killed by poison, and that for this purpose a
certain Greek had come hither, and I was concerned
in it. I made light of it and laughed, but told her that
if she had acted as I should have expected from her
prudence she would have informed me of this in time to
have the man punished. When she saw that I might
have good reason to take offence at this she said
that Beltran had not revealed it here, but in France,
and that her ambassador had only written it to her
two days ago, to which I had no answer to make,
although I knew the excuse was false. On the con-
trary, I pretended to believe her, and appeared satisfied.
I have since endeavoured to get to the bottom of this,
and find it is true that this Beltran, who was here
two or three months ago, told Cecil that the Greek
Vergecio, of whom I have already written to your
Majesty, had come hither on behalf of the Pope to
arrange an agreement by which the Papists were to
kill the Queen and Lord Robert. It is said that
Cecil was very busy investigating the matter, but
satisfied himself at last that the man was simply a
swindler, and had only come to get money from them.
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 215
I am much surprised at the Queen's inventing the
other story and prevaricating thus without any reason,
although I thought that as soon as she had said it
she repented, and tried to get over it by appearing to
consider it the absurdity it is. I know however that
it was not looked upon at all as a joke at first, and
that Cecil himself was waiting at a door for many
hours on the watch for two men described by Beltran,
who were to be arrested. This would not have been
done, at least by Cecil himself, if they had not taken
the thing seriously.
The Queen has sent a summons to Lady Margaret
Douglas to come hither with her husband and children.
It is said publicly that the reason of this is that she
shows favour to the Catholics in the province of York,
and that consequently the Bishop dares not visit his
diocese or punish any Papist. This reason, however,
is a pretended one, and has been made public to
deceive the people as to the reality, which is that the
Queen hears that Lady Margaret is trying to marry
her son to the Queen of Scots. This has been
divulged by one of her servants, whom the Queen has
taken into her service and rewarded for the informa-
tion, and inquiries are now being made as to those
who may have taken part in the matter. The Earls
of Northumberland and Westmoreland and the Duke
of Norfolk have been brought hither at once with the
excuse that the Queen wished them to pass Christmas
with her. I understand that Lady Margaret is much
distressed, as she thinks she will be thrown into the
Tower, and that her son's life is in danger. I am
told that she is resolved not to deny the allegation
about the marriage of the Queen of Scots, as she
says it is no crime, and as that Queen is her niece,
the daughter of her brother, she thinks she has done
no harm in advising her to do what she believes
would be the best for her, namely, to marry her son,
by which the succession of this kingdom would be
secured to the Scottish Queen, and all reason for
strife would be avoided in case of the Queen of
216 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
England dying without issue. If the English should
allege that the Queen of Scots could not succeed in
consequence of her being a foreigner, she would
nevertheless reign over the kingdom by right of this
youth, the son of Lady Margaret, if she married him,
as he is an Englishman and beyond doubt the nearest
heir to the crown after her. This Queen, however,
bases her security on there being no certain successor
to whom the people could turn if they were to tire of
her rule, and I understand she is in great alarm
about this business, and determined to obtain posses-
sion of the persons without the reason being made
public, as she fears that if the people were to under-
stand the business it might please them and cause a
disturbance if Lady Margaret were free. In order to
summon her without turmoil they have taken the
pretext of finding fault with her about religion, which
will make her unpopular with London people. This
gives great pain to the faithful, as they had placed
all their trust in this woman and her son, and if they
dared I am sure they would help her, and forces
would be forthcoming in the country itself if they had
any hope of help from without.
Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, who had
been excluded from the English succession in the closing
years of Henry VIII., owing to her Roman Catholic leanings,
had planned the match between Mary and her son before
the Scottish Queen's return. She was not one lightly to
forego the privileges of her direct descent from Henry VIII. 's
eldest sister, though her mother had obtained a Papal decree
invalidating the marriage of which she was the offspring,
and the Scottish Estates had pronounced her a bastard.
Lady Margaret found every encouragement for her ambitions
in the disaffected northern counties, whence, with her family,
she was now summoned by Elizabeth, who was not without
some inkling of her intrigues. She was accordingly handed
over to the custody of Sir Richard and Lady Sackville at
Sheen, while her husband was committed to the Tower ;
and at least twelve months elapsed before Elizabeth saw fit
to release them. Lady Margaret was supported in her
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 217
matrimonial scheme by the Catholic nobles of Scotland, for
whom Darnley, although a naturalized Englishman, was
a fit rallying point as the heir of two great Scottish houses.
Mary had been approached on the subject shortly after her
arrival, and though she declined to commit herself one way
or the other, she left Darnley's tutor, Arthur Lilliard, to
whom had been entrusted the delicate task of making this
secret proposal, with the impression that she would bear it
well in mind. No word of this seems to have reached Knox
or Randolph ; nor was it mentioned when Lethington visited
the English Court with his mistress's formal messages of
courtesy, accompanied by the defiant declaration of the
Scottish lords that they would stand by their Queen if
Elizabeth insisted on the ratification of the treaty which
they had themselves helped to make. Their mistress, they
said, was willing to forgive the ungenerous refusal of the
passage through England ; " but if it should chance, as God
forbid ! that the Queen of England would use any discourtesy
towards the Queen their sovereign, or give occasion on her
part to violate the good amity and peace between their two
Majesties, she might be well assured that they, acknowledg-
ing themselves to be her subjects, would not forget their
duty for the maintenance of the Queen their sovereign's
just quarrel." l Elizabeth took this protest in surprisingly
good part, perhaps because the arrest of Lady Catherine
Grey and the Countess of Lennox, with all the dark
suspicions roused thereby, made her more tolerant of Mary's
claims to the succession. It was a treacherous, uncertain
outlook, whatever point of view she took, and she did not
mend matters by discouraging her best advisers. That Cecil
was again out of favour at this time is obvious from his
bitter complaint on the subject to Throckmorton :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR NICHOLAS
THROCKMORTON.
[" Hardwicke State Papers,"]
WESTMINSTER, December 22, 1561.
... I might lament my place that I hold being
to outward appearance, because of frequentation with
1 Froude.
2i8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
her Majesty, of much credit ; yet, indeed, of none at
all. But my remedy is to leave the place ; wherein
my only grief is to see the likelihood of such suc-
cessors as I am sure will destroy all my good
purposes. I may not write, but yet I may lament.
What is my credit to help anybody, may appear in
myself, that have been forced to sell off the land which
I had when I came to this place with the Queen-
one hundred and fifty pounds of good known lands.
And, at this instant, I am with burden of debt
compelled to ask leave of her Majesty to sell
away my office in the Common Pleas, that hath
been the only stay of my living these fifteen
years, and her Majesty doth license me so to do.
But so that I might be able to procure furniture
for others to serve her Majesty, I cared not for
myself.
I have carried in my head, with care, the means
how her Majesty should from time to time conduct
her affairs. I see so little proof of my labour, by
reason her Majesty not allowing them, that I have
left all to the wide world. I do only keep on accounts
for show, but inwardly I meddle not, leaving
things to work in a course, as the clock is left when
the barrel is wound up. It is time to end these
complaints to you, wrho cannot remedy them ; but
yet because you write to me divers times of
matters worthy your consideration, thinking that
you have bestowed them well on me, in hopes
that I will fashion them and put them forth, when
you see I have no comfort so to do, I thought not
inconvenient to note thus much to you of my imper-
fection.
Here be no small practices in forging, some think
of the succession, if her Majesty should not marry or
leave issue. This song hath many parts; but, for
myself, I have no skill but in plain song. Others be
devising how to hinder religion, the rather because
her Majesty seemeth easy therein ; and if I do no
good, I am sure therein I do no hurt ; and in respect
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 219
thereof, principally, do I the rest of all my services.
I find a great desire in both these Queens to have an
interview ; and knowing the diversity of both their
intents, although I wish it, yet I know it dangerous
to be any singular doer therein.
To Mary's protest that she desired nothing more than to
be on good terms with her " sister," and her promise to sign
the treaty if her Majesty would consent to its revision at the
hands of a joint commission of Englishmen and Scotsmen,
Elizabeth replied on November 23rd that she saw " no good
cause to be so well satisfied as we looked for," yet considered
her meaning " sincere and just as ours is." At the same
time, she did not like the idea of a new commission, and
invited Mary instead, frankly, to state in a private letter,
what were her real objections to the treaty. " When
princesses treat by open assembly of ambassadors," she
wrote, " the world, especially the subjects of both, judge
the amity not sound, but shaken or crazed, which we would
no wise to be conceived of ours. . . . You shall see we
require nothing but justice, honour, and reason." l Mary
thereupon took Elizabeth at her word :
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
SETON, January 5, 1562.
Whereas by your letters of 23rd November, we
understand that our answer given to Sir Peter
Mewtas, as he reported it, is not so satisfactory as
ye looked for : we cannot imagine any lack therein.
As our meaning is and has been sincere and upright,
we so tempered our answer as we thought might well
stand with your content, and quietness of us both :
wishing to that end that the treaty might be reviewed
by some commissioners sufficiently authorised on both
parts — whereto you have in your letter opened such
a just and necessary consideration, that the world
shall not by our dealing by open assembly of ambas-
sadors, judge that the amity is not sound, but in
Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 571 — 2.
220 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
some points shaken or erased. This we well allow
and take as a plain declaration of your good mind,
and token of your natural love to us. Therefore,
where ye think it better we should either communi-
cate privily to Randolph your servant, or rather by
our own letters to you, the just causes moving us to
stay the ratification, we willingly embrace that same,
and presently mean so plainly to utter our mind to
you, that ye shall well perceive the memory of all
former strange accidents is clearly extinguished on
our part, and that now without reservation we deal
frankly with you in such sort as is convenient for
two sisters professing such firm amity to treat. We
leave to touch in what time the treaty was passed —
by whose command, by what ministers, how autho-
rised, or the sufficiency of their commission — though
the least of these is worthy consideration — but will
only touch that head which is meet for us to provide,
and on your part not inconvenient, but such as in
honour, justice, and reason ye may well allow. How
prejudicial that treaty is to such title and interest as,
by birth and natural descent of your own lineage,
may fall to us, by inspection of the treaty ye may
easily perceive, and how slenderly a matter of so
great consequence is wrapped up in obscure terms.
We know how near we are descended of the blood
of England, and what devices have been attempted
to make us as it were a stranger from it! We trust
being so near your cousin, ye would be loth we should
receive so manifest an injury as all utterly to be
debarred from that title which in possibility may
fall unto us. We will deal frankly with you, and
wish that ye deal friendly with us. We will have
no judge at present of the equity of our demand but
yourself. If we had such a matter to treat with
any other prince, there is no person whose advice
we would rather follow. Such is the account we
make of your amity, and opinion of your uprightness
in judgment, that though the matter partly touches
yourself, we dare adventure to put much in your
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 221
hands, and will require nothing of you but that we
could find in our heart to grant to you, if the like
case were ours. For that treaty, so far as concerns
us, we will do all that in reason may be required, or
rather enter into a new one, such as may stand
without our prejudice, in favour of you and the
lawful issue of your body; provided that our interest
to that crown, tailing yourself and the said issue, may
be put in good surety. Whereon the matter being so
knit up, and all seed of dissension uprooted, we shall
present to the world such an amity as has never
been seen. We having written thus to show the
bottom of our mind nakedly, trust to be answered
in like fashion.
After this candid correspondence, the suggestions for a
meeting between the two Queens referred to in Cecil's last
letter were taken up with apparent eagerness on both sides.
This was more palatable to the Protestants than to the
Catholics, who regarded Mary's tolerance of heresy with
increasing alarm. " If the Queens meet, the Papists think
themselves utterly overthrown," wrote Randolph to Cecil ;
" they say plainly she cannot return a true Christian
woman." Some idea of the extravagant tales which cir-
culated among all Scottish reformers in those days — partly
perhaps explaining their bitter hatred of the Catholics —
may be gathered from another of Randolph's gossipy
dispatches :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, January 15, 1562.
. . . The bishops are so intolerably licentious that
it was not to be endured, and no better way to plague
them than to pluck at their livings by her in whom
their whole hope and trust was ! There is a merry
tale that Cardanus the Italian took upon him the
cure of the Bishop of St. Andrews of a disease judged
222 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
by all incurable. He practised on him divers strange
inventions ; hung him certain hours a day by the
heels, to cause him void at the mouth what nature
could not otherwise expel — fed him many days with
young whelps, used him with extreme heats, and as
many days with extreme colds. Before his departure,
he " roundeth " daily for six days certain unknown
words in his ear, and used no medicine after. It is
said he then put a devil within him, for he has since
been better, and that this devil was given unto him
of credit but for nine years, which, being near expired,
either he must go to hell with his devil, or fall again
into his old mischief to poison the whole country
with his false practices. In token of repentance,
besides his old concubine taken from her married
husband, he hath this year had (his devil I trow was
father to the one or both) a couple of children. His
bastard brother the Bishop of Argyll has now two
women with child besides his wife. The Bishop of
Dunblane — it is shameful to speak it — spareth not
his own daughter. The rest are alike.
By January 30 Mary had so persuaded the same ambas-
sador of her good will that he assured Cecil : " The Queen's
affection for the Queen's Majesty is so great that never was
greater to any, or it is the deepest dissembled and the best
covered that ever was." l A flattering portrait of Elizabeth
herself belongs to this period, painted by Roger Ascham,
whom, on ascending the throne, she had retained as Latin
Secretary, and whose pride in his illustrious pupil is, perhaps,
excusable. The portrait appears in his belated reply to a
letter from his learned friend Sturmius, who had written to
him more than two years previously on behalf of the King
of Sweden in his suit for Elizabeth's hand in marriage. The
delay in answering him, he explained in the course of a
letter which is far too long to print in full, was entirely
due to illness, being " so attacked by continual fevers that
one scarcely left me without another immediately following
in its place" :
i Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 223
ROGER ASCHAM TO JOHN STURMIUS.
["Zurich Letters." Second Series.]
LONDON, April n, 1562.
Your last letter to me was dated Jan. 15, 1560.
The two heads of which, one concerning the Scots'
business, the other concerning the Queen's marriage,
induced me to give it to the Queen herself to read ; in
both of which she discreetly noticed and graciously
acknowledged and commended your singular respect
towards herself. She exceedingly approved your
judgment respecting the then existing state of affairs
in Scotland, and even now she greatly values you for
your solicitude about us and our affairs. The passage
concerning her marriage, I well remember, she read
over three times, with an occasional sweet smile, and
a very modest and bashful silence. Respecting her
marriage, my very dear John Sturmius, I have neither
any thing certain to write myself, nor does any one
else among us, I am sure, know what to think about
it. It was not for nothing, my Sturmius, but after
due consideration, that in that first long letter of mine
to you I stated, that in her whole manner of life she
more resembled Hippolyte than Phaedra. Which
observation I then referred, not to the grace of her
person, but wholly to the chastity of her mind : for of
her own nature, without the advice of any one, she is
so entirely averse and abstinent from marriage.
When I know any thing for certain, I will write you
word by the first opportunity : meanwhile I can give
you no hopes as far as the King of Sweden is
concerned.
I wish you would sometimes write to master Cecil :
for he is both most sound in religion, and most dis-
creet in the government of the state ; and indeed, next
to God and the Queen, the most firm support of both.
He is also very fond of learning and learned men, and
is himself well skilled in both Latin and Greek.
You wish, I know, to hear from me respecting our
affairs. But I have nothing that I consider better
224 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
worth writing about than the Queen herself. I will
therefore briefly describe what great and important
matters, since she has taken the helm of government,
she has planned with wisdom, and accomplished with
success. First of all, she dedicated her earliest
endeavours to God, by nobly purifying the religion
which she found miserably polluted ; in the accom-
plishment of which object she exercised such
moderation, that the Papists themselves have no
complaint to make of having been severely dealt with.
This peace established with God was followed by a
peace with all the neighbouring sovereigns : and yet,
on her accession to the throne she found this kingdom
involved in a double war, with the Scots and the
French. Next, she so firmly and prudently withstood
the Guises in Scotland, who were plotting wonderful
things against us, that there now exists between both
kingdoms, and both sovereigns, as secure a peace and
firm an alliance, as can possibly take place between
two most quiet neighbourhoods or most united sisters.
After religion, in the first place, and the State next,
had been restored to so desirable a tranquillity, she
applied her mind to the proper settlement of other
internal improvements of the realm.
All the coin that had been debased, and entirely
alloyed with copper, she has restored to the pure
silver standard * ; an arduous and royal task, which
neither Edward nor even Henry himself ever ventured
to undertake. She has furnished her armoury with
such exquisite materials that no sovereign in Europe,
I am sure, can show its equal. Her navy too she has
so embellished and provided with every necessary,
both as regards the abundance of stores and the ability
of the sailors, that the resources of a wealthy kingdom
might seem to have been expended upon this sole
object.
1 " Queen Elizabeth has restored all our gold and silver coinage
to its former value, and rendered it pure and unalloyed ; a truly
royal act, and which you will wonder could have been effected in so
short a time." Dr. Jewel to Peter Martyr, February 2, 1562
(Zurich Letters, First Series).
MARY STUART'S HOME-COMING 225
These things are of a public nature, and relate to
the whole realm. Let us now inspect her personal
character and pursuits. She is readily forgetful of
private injury, but is a severe assertor of public
justice. She does not excuse crime in any one ; she
leaves no one the hope of impunity ; she cuts off from
everyone the liberty of offending. She, least of all
princes, covets the property and wealth of her subjects,
and requires her own revenues to be expended spar-
ingly and economically upon every private pleasure,
but royally and liberally either for any object of public
convenience, or for the splendour of domestic magnifi-
cence. But the glory she derives from herself, and
the adornments of talent and learning that she
possesses, I have described to you in another letter.
I will now only state in addition, that neither at
Court, nor in the universities, nor among our heads
in church or state, are there four of our countrymen
who understand Greek better than the Queen herself.
When she is reading Demosthenes or ^schines, I
am very often astonished at seeing her so ably under-
stand, I do not mean, the force of the words, the
structure of the sentences, the propriety of the
language, the ornaments of oratory, and the har-
monious and elegant bearing of the whole discourse ;
but also, what is of more importance, the feeling and
spirit of the speaker, the struggle of the whole debate,
the decrees and inclinations of the people, the manners
and institutions of every state, and all other matters
of this kind. All her own subjects, and very many
foreigners, are witnesses to her proficiency in other
languages. I was one day present when she replied
at the same time to three ambassadors, the Imperial,
French, and Swedish, in three languages : Italian to
one, French to the other, Latin to the third ; easily,
without hesitation, clearly, and without being con-
fused, to the various subjects thrown out, as is usual
in their discourse. That you may yourself see how
elegantly she writes, I send you enclosed in this
letter a slip of paper, in which you have the word
E.M.S. Q
226 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
" quemadmodum " written in the Queen's own hand.
The upper one is mine, the lower the Queen's.
Let me know in your next letter whether the sight is
pleasant to you and the present an acceptable one.
And thus much respecting our most noble Queen,
who is, besides all this, my most munificent mistress,
and also very partial to John Sturmius. And should
you ever happen to come to England, you will, I
think, hear from her own mouth that Roger Ascham
has not been a forgetful friend to John Sturmius in
the presence of so great a sovereign. This account
of our most excellent Queen you will, I believe, read,
and I assuredly write it, with the greatest satisfaction
to us both. If she would only marry, she would leave
no room for higher commendation ; and I wish, my
Sturmius, that you would call forth all that power
which you have derived from the best sources both of
wisdom and eloquence, whether of reasoning from
Demosthenes, or of diction from Cicero, to persuade
her to this step. No cause more honourable can be
undertaken by you than this, nor can any greater
power of persuasion be desired by me, than that
which you possess. We desire her to make choice
of whomsoever she pleases ; we do not wish other
persons to point out any individual for her acceptance,
and we are all of us in favour of one of our own
countrymen in preference to a stranger. I would
have you know these things, in case you should ever
feel disposed to consider the subject : for should she
but add this single benefit to the number of those she
has already conferred upon this country, and which
I have just now mentioned, no nation can be more
happy than ours. . . .
CHAPTER VI
ELIZABETH AND MARY SWORN FRIENDS
Elizabeth Helps the Huguenots and Hopes to Recover Calais — Plot
Against the Spanish Ambassador — Betrayed by his Secretary
— Rumours of Elizabeth's Marriage with Dudley — Failure of
Proposed Meeting between Mary and Elizabeth — An Exchange
of Diamonds — Arthur Pole's Abortive Plot — The Treaty of
Hampton Court — Elizabeth's Letter to Mary on the Subject —
Her Dangerous Illness — Solemn Protest Regarding Dudley —
Mary Stuart's Expedition Against Huntly — Declares Unalterable
Friendship for Elizabeth — Knox Denounces Her Amusements —
Bothwell Escapes from Edinburgh and is Arrested in England —
The English Expedition to France — Fall of Rouen — Elizabeth's
Encouragement to Warwick — The Disaster of Dreux —
Princess of Conde's Appeal to Elizabeth — Assassination of the
Duke of Guise — Parliament Petitions Elizabeth to Settle the
Succession Problem — Her Reply — New Laws and the " Thirty-
nine Articles."
THE correspondence of the spring of 1562 between
England and Scotland is full of the projected meeting
between the two Queens which was destined never to take
place. All might still have been well but for the massacre
of Vassy on March I, and the cry of the Huguenots for
help, which must needs be answered before Mary's claims
could be attended to — for was there not also a fair chance of
recovering Calais thereby ? That was the price of English
intervention after the incident of Vassy had set fire to the
first French war of religion, the agreement being that in
return for helping the Huguenots with men and money
England was to hold Havre until Calais was restored.
Elizabeth's Council was long divided on the subject, but
eventually she succeeded in forcing them into what Professor
Pollard has described as perhaps the greatest blunder of her
reign. Quadra was told that the Queen was quite furious at
the decisive Council meeting, and replied to those who
opposed this expedition that " if they were so much afraid
that the consequences of failure would fall upon them, she
herself would take all the risk, and would sign her name to
Q 2
228 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
it."1 There were many excuses for Elizabeth's eagerness.
She hated the Guises who had started the war ; appalling
tales reached her of Catholic atrocities elsewhere in France ;
and Philip, who was known to be helping the Guises, was
assuredly practising, according to Throckmorton, "to put
his foot in Calais." a Froude gives the rest of Throck-
morton's letter as follows :
SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO SIR WILLIAM
CECIL.
[Froude' s "History of England."}
PARIS, April 17, 1562.
. . . Your Majesty doth see the present state here
which is in such terms as it behoveth you greatly,
well to consider and deeply to weigh what may
ensue ; and whether it be meet in this dangerous
and captious time to have any interview this summer
betwixt your Majesty and the Queen of Scotland.
Already the ambassador of Spain hath within these
three days used such language to the Queen- Mother
as she may conceive the King his master doth mind
to make war to repress the Prince of Conde, if the
King her son and she will not — as one that saith he
hath such interest in the crown of France by the
marriage of his wife, and in respect of the conservation
of the Christian religion, as that he will not suffer
the same to fall into ruin and danger by heresy and
sedition. It may chance that in these garboyls some
occasion may be offered as that again you may be
brought into possession of Calais, or of some port
of consequence of this side ; but howsoever things
fall out, it standeth your Majesty upon for your own
surety and reputation, to be well aware that the
Prince of Conde and his followers be not in this
realm overthrown. I shall not need to make any
long discourse unto your Majesty who is so well
advised, but only put you in remembrance what
profit, surety, and credit your Majesty hath obtained
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 259.
8 Foreign Calendar : Elizabeth, IV., p. 609.
CATHERINE DE MEDICI
[Photo, Alinari
SWORN FRIENDS 229
by maintaining your friends and such as concur with
you in religion in the realm of Scotland.
Assuredly although this papistical complot did
begin here first to break out, yet the plot thereof
was large and intended to be executed and practised
as well in your Majesty's realm as Scotland and
elsewhere. It may please your Majesty the Papists
within these two days at Sens in Normandy have
slain and hurt two hundred persons — men and
women. Your Majesty may perceive how dangerous
it is to suffer Papists that be of great heart and
enterprise to lift up their crests so high.
At first Elizabeth tried to mediate, but Sir Henry Sidney's
mission to Catherine de' Medici was foredoomed to failure,
and Dudley, equally ready to trim his sails to a Catholic or
Protestant breeze, assured Conde of his own and the Queen's
interest in the Huguenot cause. The new turn of affairs
made it clear to Quadra that Spain must now abandon all
hope of profiting by a marriage between Dudley and the
Queen :
BISHOP QUADRA TO CARDINAL DE GRANVELLE.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, April 3, 1562.
It is, in my opinion, already too late for his Majesty
to favour Robert in his marriage affairs, as I am sure
that his Majesty would lose the support of all the
Catholics here if it were seen that help were given
him without any stipulation for the restoration of
religion. It would also greatly offend Robert's
enemies, while neither he nor the Queen would be
bound to anything. She desires not to act in accord
with his Majesty, as will have been seen by her
behaviour in this case and all others, and I have
already pointed out that the letter they requested
was only to smooth over all difficulties here and
carry out their intentions. She thinks she can
marry, or unmarry even if she likes, now that she
has the support of the heretics here and in France,
230 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
and knows the trouble our affairs are in in the
Netherlands. I am certain that this Queen has
thought and studied nothing else since the King
sailed for Spain but how to oust him from the
Netherlands, and she believes the best way to effect
this is to embroil them over there on religious
questions, as I wrote months ago. God grant that
there may be none there (in Flanders) who wish the
same. As to the French, heretics and others, there
is no doubt about their desires in the matter, and
the Germans will certainly help to the same end.
To this may be added that they can only be certain
of the Queen of Scots and the Catholic faction in
this way.- Her (Elizabeth's) natural inclination is
inimical to the King, and always has been so. She
believes at once anything she is told to our prejudice,
and all my attention and flattery, even in Robert's
affair which she has so much at heart, have been
powerless to bring her round to his Majesty's side,
although I have certainly spared nothing, and cannot
reproach myself with omitting anything in this matter
which tended to the service of God and the King.
Quadra was never so badly treated as at this period. His
letters were intercepted ; his Secretary, named Borghese,
betrayed all his secrets to the Queen's ministers; and he
was openly charged, among other things, with turning his
residence, Durham House, into a hotbed of Catholic and
Irish conspiracy against the crown. In spite of his cloth
the Bishop would probably have killed his betrayer rather
than that this should have happened :
BISHOP QUADRA TO THE DUKE OF ALBA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. II.]
LONDON, June 6, 1562.
I am greatly troubled about a disaster that has
happened in my house. It is a case of a servant of
mine who has been bribed by the Queen's ministers
and has divulged a host of things prejudicial to
private persons and, even in public matters, has laid
SWORN FRIENDS 231
more on to me than he could truthfully do. It has
been impossible to prevent this inconvenience, as the
promises they have made him have been so great, and
his wickedness so reckless, that nothing would make
him turn back, and, as for punishing him by taking his
life by extraordinary means, apart from its being so
foreign to my profession, I thought it would probably
give rise to greater scandal, and enable them to say
more than they can say now. I could satisfy the
Queen about it if she would hear me, but, being a
woman and ill-informed by the leading men in her
Council, she is so shocked that I do not know to what
lengths she will go. I am trying to get her to expel
this bad man from the country, as she ought to do in
fulfilment of the treaties, but she will not hear of it,
which distresses me more than anything else, as it is
against the honour and dignity of his Majesty, besides
being an intolerable insult to me. I send this courier
to ask his Majesty for redress, and I beg your
Excellency, in view of what I write to the King, to
consider whether the case is one in which your
Excellency can favour me. My private honour being
impugned, as well as his Majesty's service, I verily
hope that your Excellency will not leave me unpro-
tected, and will endeavour that this unavoidable
accident shall not injure me in what is of most
importance, namely, his Majesty's gracious favour.
The affair has made so much noise, and aroused
suspicion in so many breasts, that it would not be
surprising if the treason of this man were to do more
harm to the Queen than to me, for my residence here
is so distasteful to the heretics that they have done
nothing for the last year but try to get me out of
the country, and if his Majesty does not intend to
assist in these affairs the best way would be to satisfy
them. I again beg of your Excellency not to abandon
me in this business, or to allow this great insult
offered to me by the Queen to go unredressed.
There was nothing for it but to face the situation boldly, and
Quadra was never afraid to do that. It was all in his favour
232 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
that the secrets revealed by his Secretary would implicate
not only a number of the Queen's noblemen, but also the
Queen and Dudley themselves in regard to their secret
dealings with Spain in the matter of matrimony :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, June 20, 1562.
Since writing to your Majesty on the 6th instant
by Gamboa the courier, I have spoken with the
Queen, who tried to hide her anger with me, but
could not refrain from telling me that she was going
to complain to your Majesty of me for the bad offices I
did in always writing ill of her and her affairs. I told
her that as she had my servant in her house, and he
had revealed more than it was meet for her to know,
and as against all precedent she thought fit to call
me to account for my communications to your
Majesty, I thought it was time that I also should
speak plainly and tell her that my dispatches to your
Majesty, good or bad, had all been consequent on her
own proceedings, and I had treated her matters with
your Majesty in accordance therewith in all honesty
and straightforwardness. If this did not meet with
her approval, it was at all events in accord with my
duty to God and your Majesty, and satisfactory to
my own conscience. She tried to convince me by
citing particular cases, and at last said I could not
deny that I had sent Dr. Turner to Flanders to try to
get her turned off the throne and substitute others
(meaning Lady Margaret). I told her I had sent the
Doctor to arrange my private affairs, and took the
opportunity of his going (he being a person well
informed of events here) to tell him to give an
account of the Duchess of Parma of the state of the
French negotiations and designs in this country,
which might be directed to securing the adherence of
Lady Margaret to their side by taking her son and
marrying him in France, by which means, even if the
Queen of Scotland, who was then in bad health, were
SWORN FRIENDS 233
to die, they would still have some claim to a footing
in this country. These things were of such a
character that I could not avoid informing your
Majesty of them and warning the Duchess, seeing
that war was being prepared between the King of
France and her (the Queen), he having again taken
the title and arms of King of England, and
publicly announced his intention to invade England,
as I was assured by the Bishop of Valence and M. de
Randau when they returned from Scotland.
I said the fault of my not communicating these
things to her at the time was entirely her own, as she
would never allow M. de Glajon or myself to have
anything to do with her affairs, or exert your Majesty's
interest in her favour, but actually told Glajon and
me that your Majesty was her secret enemy. As I
saw, however, that she excluded me from her counsels,
and that the peace she had concluded with France
wasonly a make believe, and war with this country would
lead to the breaking of the peace elsewhere, I had
only done my duty in obtaining all information as to
the pretensions and claims of the various possible
heirs to the crown, and their respective characters,
designs, and connexion, to enable your Majesty to
adopt such steps as might be necessary. This was
during the life of King Francis, when war was to be
feared, but since his death I had written about nothing
but her marriage with Lord Robert (which if it had not
yet been effected was from no lack of good offices on
my part) and the question of the Nuncio and her
taking part in the Concilio, and she knew well that
these two matters had been dealt with in a sincere
desire to serve her, and also the way I had been
treated in return. She tried to find excuses for what
I said, but in vain, and at last I said that as I desired
to satisfy and convince her I should accept it as a
favour if she would have me informed of the things my
servant had said to my detriment, in order that I
might tell her frankly the truth, but that if she did not
want to be satisfied, it would suffice for me to give an
234 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
account of my actions to your Majesty, and as for the
rest, she could do as she thought fit. She answered
that she would send someone who could tell me, and
subsequently the Lord Chamberlain and Dr. Wotton
came to my house, who told me verbally what
is contained in the statement I send herewith,
and I answered to the effect of the copy also
enclosed, reserving to myself however the right of
replying at length to the Queen when I should see
her.
I have thought well to advise your Majesty in detail
of all this in order that an answer may be given to
the Queen's ambassador when he speaks on the
subject. The most important part of the affair is the
information the servant has given them about Turner's
report, which remained in the possession of this man
after Turner died in Brussels at a lodging occupied
by both of them. Although I got back the original
in the doctor's own handwriting, this man must have
kept a copy by means of which, and a few drafts he
has stolen from time to time since he has been here,
he is now able to do all this harm. The evil will
greatly increase after the summer, because just now
they are afraid of a rising, and of the aid your
Majesty might extend to the Catholics, and do not
dare to arrest those whose names are mentioned in
the report. I am informed that the Councillors are
much annoyed that the Queen revealed to me the
secret of this report, as they think I may warn those
whose names are mentioned in it, and this is the
reason that the Chamberlain and Wotton did not
mention it to me. . . . With respect to expelling the
servant from the country they tell me the Queen will
not fail to do what is right, so I have thought well
not to refer to it again until I know your Majesty's
wishes. The Queen's action is overbearing and
unprecedented in this case, and I am told moreover,
that she had promised this bad man an income of
400 ducats and a good marriage as the payment for
his treason, although she denies it.
SWORN FRIENDS 235
The Lord Chamberlain and Dr. Wotton charged Quadra,
among other things, with writing to Philip that the Queen
had been secretly married to Lord Robert at the Earl of
Pembroke's house. To this Quadra replied :
What I wrote to his Majesty about this was the
same as I said to the Queen, which was that people
were saying all over the town that the wedding had
taken place. This at the time neither surprised nor
annoyed her, and she said it was not only people out-
side of the palace who had thought such a thing, as, on
her return that afternoon from the Earl's house, her
own ladies in waiting when she entered her chamber
with Lord Robert asked whether they were to kiss
his hand as well as hers ; to which she had told them
no, and that they were not to believe what people
said. In addition to this Robert told me two or three
days after that the Queen had promised to marry him,
but not this year. She had told me also, with an oath,
that if she had to marry an Englishman, it should only
be Robert. I had refrained from communicating these
details to his Majesty for the sake of decorum, and I do
not think, considering what others say of the Queen,
that I should be doing her any injury in writing to his
Majesty that she was married, which in fact I never
have written, and I am sorry I cannot do so with truth.1
By which the Bishop was probably hinting at the repeated
reports that Elizabeth had already had children by Dudley.
The storm temporarily blew over, but the clouds which were
gathering so thickly over divided France were now at burst-
ing point, and all hope of the meeting with Mary — for the
time being at all events — was at an end. It had been pro-
visionally fixed for some date in August or September, but on
July 15 Elizabeth wrote postponing it until the following
summer, " the lets and hindrances from foreign parts being
beyond our power to remedy." Both Queens, however, were
at considerable pains to assure each other that whatever
happened in France should make no difference to their own
sisterly love. All Mary's political plans had revolved round
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 248.
236 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
this promised meeting. The mysterious affair in which the
now demented Arran accused Bothwell of plotting to carry
her off by force from Holyrood, and handing her over to
Arran himself at Dunbarton Castle, must have raised hideous
doubts in her mind as to her personal safety, and the loyalty
of her nobles. She had sent Lethington to Elizabeth in June
in the hope of arranging the interview, and Elizabeth had
given her consent, but Mary realised, as Randolph told Cecil in
one of his letters, that the French troubles would probably
upset their plans. Whether the meeting took place or not,
however, she professed to be overjoyed at the letter which
Elizabeth herself sent her at this time :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, June 17, 1562.
I have received your letters and the packet from
Lethington to his sovereign. The long space between
their date and delivery to me — eight days — made
me think the posts do not their duties, and many
times I have marked the like. Being delivered me
at Edinburgh at the end of my dinner, upon Sunday,
I gave them myself to the Queen at her rising from
table after supper at Dunfermline. In the packet
from Lethington there was a letter to her from the
Queen's Majesty, which first she read, and then put it
into her bosom next unto her skin, which I did not so
well mark then as after. After she had read Lething-
ton's letter, containing his whole discourse with the
Queen and her Council, she declared to Lord Mar
and me the effect of both these letters, and seemed so
well contented that neither of us needed to add any-
thing more. As in her letter from Lethington there
was no news of France, she desired to know what we
heard, wherein we had as little to say as she, and
showed both our letters. Then she entered with me
privately whether the interview was like to take effect
this year or not ? Whereto I said that Lethington
more than I could give judgment on, being so far from
SWORN FRIENDS 237
the chief place of resolution. The chief impediments
were (i) the shortness of time, and (2) the troubles
in France — I knew no others.
With this she seemed somewhat satisfied ; " And
above other things," said she, " I desire to see my
good sister, and next that we may live like good sisters
together, as your mistress hath written unto me that
we shall. I purpose," said she, " to send La Croc to
your mistress, and then farther about some business
of mine own. I have here," said she, " a ring with
a diamond fashioned like a heart. I know nothing
that can resemble my good will unto my good sister
better than that — my meaning shall be expressed in
writing in a few verses, which you shall see before
you depart, and whatsoever lacketh therein, let it be
reported by your writing. I will," said she, "witness
the same with my own hand, and call God to record
that I speak it as I think it with my heart, that
I do as much rejoice of that continuance of
friendship that I trust shall be between the Queen my
sister and me, and the people of both realms, as ever
I did in anything in my life." With these words she
took out of her bosom the Queen's Majesty's letter,
and after reading a line or two, put it in the same
place, saying, "If I could put it nearer my heart, I
would." " Now," said she, " I have somewhat to do
more than I had, for now either I must alter my letter
that I purposed to send by La Croc, or else I must
write anew." Somewhat she also said of what
Lethington had written of the difficulty found by
divers of the Queen's Majesty's Council — allowing it
well, considering their duties and place.
Next morning she delivered me a letter from Lord
Hume, advertising that my sovereign had her ships
ready with 8,000 men, it was thought to support the
Protestants, except under that colour there was any
other pretence. When her Grace saw me laugh at
that : " Well " said she, " you know that my Lord
Hume hath a castle to keep — I will not be very hasty
to believe, nor I doubt no such danger as he meaneth,
238 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
and I trust that for the matters of France, they will
be accorded, so that your mistress shall not need to
be at any such charge." There are many such tales,
and no day without some news to make her doubt the
amity, or of tumults among themselves, or some mis-
chief or other. But she is now so well accustomed to
the like, that she promises to give no hasty credit to
them. She required me to stay my writings one day,
that La Croc might deliver them, lest I think some
news of her present might reach my sovereign's ears
before arrival of the bearer.
According to Dr. Jewel it was the Duke of Guise himself
who was responsible for Mary's enthusiastic advances at this
period :
BISHOP JEWEL TO HENRY BULLINGER.
["Zurich Papers." First Series.]
SALISBURY, August 14, 1562.
... As the Duke of Guise, by holding out I know
not what hope of settling the affairs of religion, and
receiving the confession of Augsburg, has prevented
the princes of Germany from intermeddling in this
war ; so he has endeavoured by all possible means to
persuade our Queen that the present contest in
France is not about matters of religion, but that
there is an evident conspiracy against the govern-
ment ; that it is the cause of the King, whom, as
being herself also invested with royal authority, she
ought not to oppose. Meanwhile he has caused his
niece, the Queen of Scotland, to court the favour and
friendship of our Queen, and send her presents, and
make I know not what promises ; — that she purposes
this summer to come upon a visit of honour into
England, and to establish a perpetual treaty of
friendship, never to be dissolved. She has sent her
a diamond of great value, a most beautiful gem, set
in gold, and accompanied by some beautiful and
elegant verses.1 What next ? They seem to suppose
1 Written by Buchanan, then in Mary's Court. Elizabeth in return
sent Mary the rock-shaped diamond which the Scottish Queen
SWORN FRIENDS 239
that by festive interviews, and hunting matches, and
flatteries, our attention will easily be diverted from
the noise of war, and lulled to sleep. In the mean
time our Queen, when she saw through the whole
affair, and perceived what was doing, (and this was
not a matter of much difficulty,) changed her purpose
respecting her progress, gradually withdrew her
alliance with the Guises, and not obscurely intimated
her determination to assist the Prince of Conde. The
Duke of Guise was very angry at this interruption
to his designs, and received our ambassador with
reproaches ; and declared by a public proclamation
that the Queen of England was planning intrigues
against the Kingdom of France, and that she alone
had occasioned those disorders. Our Queen could
not bear this charge with patience, nor indeed ought
she to have done. She forthwith began to act with
openness, as I hear, to recall her ambassador, to
enlist troops, to dismast all vessels, both English and
foreign, from whatever place, or wherever they might
be, to prevent their getting away, and giving informa-
tion of what she was doing. Oh ! if she had acted in
this manner some time since, or if the German
princes would even now follow her example, the
whole business would have been settled much more
easily, and with much less waste of Christian blood.
And indeed the Queen has now sent into Germany,
to the princes : and there is now at Court an
ambassador from Guise, with new blandishments, as
I suppose, to delay and hinder us. But it will not, I
think, be so easy a matter to deceive people with
their eyes open.
The affairs of Scotland, as to religion, are tolerably
quiet. The Queen alone retains her Mass, contrary
to the general wish. There has been here, throughout
the whole of this present year, an incredibly bad season
both as to the weather and the state of the atmo-
afterwards regarded as sufficient warrant for her safety when she
fled to England, complaining subsequently how bitterly she was
deceived therein.
240 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
sphere. Neither sun, nor moon, nor winter, nor spring,
nor summer nor autumn, have performed their appro-
priate offices. It has rained so abundantly, and almost
without intermission, as if the heavens could hardly
do any thing else. Out of this contagion monstrous
births have taken place ; infants with hideously
deformed bodies, some being quite without heads,
some with heads belonging to other creatures ; some
born without arms, legs, or shin-bones ; some were
mere skeletons, entirely without flesh, just as the image
of death is generally represented. Similar births have
been produced in abundance from swine, mares, cows,
and domestic fowls. The harvest is now coming on,
rather scanty indeed, but yet so as we have not much
to complain of.
Yours in Christ,
JOHN JEWEL, Anglus.
Such a season of phenomenal births could scarcely be
expected to pass without at least one still-born plot against
the English crown. The sorry hero of this abortive affair
was Arthur Pole, eldest son of that Sir Geoffrey Pole who,
under Henry VIII. was tortured into the confession which sent
his brother, Sir Henry Pole, and others, to the block. Young
Pole had been encouraged by the Catholics to pose as a
claimant of the crown because of a Protestant scheme to
set up as Elizabeth's successor his own cousin, Lord Hunt-
ingdon, who, as Quadra told King Philip, was farther removed
from the throne :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, September 15, 1562.
Arthur Pole, nephew of the late Cardinal Pole, son
of his brother Geoffrey, is determined to leave England
on pretext of religion, but the truth is that he is going
to try his fortune, and pretend to the Crown, with the
help of the Catholics here. His claim is not worth
much, but his indignation has been aroused, and
ambition encouraged, at seeing that the heretics want
SWORN FRIENDS 241
to make the Earl of Huntingdon king, who is the
son of a niece of the Cardinal, and, in fact, if the
crown came to the descendants of the Duke of
Clarence, which they call the house of the White
Rose, he (Pole) would be one degree nearer than
Huntingdon, as will be seen by the genealogical tree
I sent your Majesty last year. This lad is turbulent
and not very prudent, but spirited and daring. They
say he is poor, and his relations are poorer still, but
the Earl of Northumberland has given him a sister
of his in marriage, and Lord Loughborough keeps
him in his house and treats him as his son, so help
will not be lacking for the enterprise. He sent word
to me that if your Majesty would entertain and
employ him he would place himself at your Majesty's
disposal with a dozen young gentlemen of high
position, and he asked me for a letter to Madame,
with assistance for him to leave the country. I
excused myself from granting either request as well
as I could without offending him, and he then went
to the French ambassador and offered himself for
the present war. The ambassador also excused him-
self, and advised him not to go to France by telling
him that the Guises, through their connexion with
the Queen of Scotland, would not like to see another
pretender to the English throne. I think, neverthe-
less, that he will leave here. The French ambassador
had some conversation with me about it, and unthink-
ingly asked for information about the persons
interested. It is possible the French may receive
Pole to further embarrass the Queen. He pretends
to be able to do a great deal, and really if he obtained
support he could be very troublesome.
Notwithstanding the French ambassador's advice young
Pole decided to volunteer for service in the French war
against the Huguenots, in the hope of winning the support
of the Guises against Elizabeth. The plot was discovered
just as he was on the point of embarking for France with
his brother Walter and a few followers. They were all
E.M.s. R
242 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
thrown into the Tower. It was then confessed that their
scheme was to land a force in Wales and there proclaim
Mary Stuart as rightful Queen of England, Arthur Pole
being ready to make over to her such claims as he possessed
on the understanding that she would revive in his favour the
dukedom of Clarence. Their defence was " that they meant
it not before the sovereign Queen should die, which, as they
were persuaded by one Prestall, should be about March "
(see p. 265). Neither of the Poles was executed, but, kept in
the Tower, both died there some eight years later.
On September 20 the Huguenots concluded with Elizabeth,
through the Vidame de Chartres, the Treaty of Hampton
Court, by which England was bound to lend them assistance
both with men and money, and to hold the town and port of
Havre (called Newhaven by the English) with an English
garrison until the restoration of Calais. The chief command
of the expedition was placed in the hands of Dudley's elder
brother, whom the Queen had created Earl of Warwick in
December of the preceding year, thus restoring to the family
the title which had ceased with the attainting of their father,
the Duke of Northumberland. The real object of the expedi-
tion is not far to seek in Cecil's letter to his now unknown
correspondent :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO .
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times"}
October n, 1562.
I know very well that your abode there, without
oftener advertisements from hence, must needs be
grievous unto you, and yet the only fault hereof is
these varieties of the affairs in France, which have so
turned both ourselves and our Councils here into so
many shapes from time to time, as I could never,
until this present, make any certain account what I
might write to you hereof.
True it is that for my own part I have used all the
advice I could to procure some quiet end in these
French matters, because I have seen from the begin-
ning that the process of them one way ended would
be a beginning of our troubles, and as it may appear
SWORN FRIENDS 243
unto you, when the Guisians would give no ear, but
follow their intents by force. It hath been seen
meet to the Queen's Majesty, by the advice of all
her Council, to set in her foot, and to preserve the
miserable state of her poor neighbours in Normandy
with a buckler of her defence.
The matter hath been long in consultation, and
divers times broken off, with hope of some good end
in France ; but now finding that desperate, the
Queen's Majesty hath determined to send over the
Earl of Warwick, with six thousand footmen, three
thousand with himself to Newhaven [Havre], and the
other three to Dieppe. It is meant to keep Newhaven
in the Queen's possession until Calais be either
delivered, or better assurance of it than presently
we have. And herein both justice and policy shall
maintain our actions : for as for Calais, because the
French have broken the treaty with us, we may be bold
presently to demand it, and if, thereof arguments
shall arise, I think the Queen's Majesty need not be
ashamed to utter her right to Newhaven as parcel
of the Duchy of Normandy.
Nothing is meant here on our part to make any
invasion, but to enter quietly into these places, which
by law of arms we may, considering we take none of
them by force ; and as long as the French shall give
no other cause, it is meant to use no war towards
them, but to allow of mutual traffic betwixt both the
nations.
By the Queen's Majesty's letter to that King, and
her private unto you, and by the declaration which also
shall be sent you with another writing delivered by
her Majesty to her Lieutenant now sent into Nor-
mandy, you shall well understand the causes of her
Majesty's doings, as the same may be avowed to
the world ; and of all these two principally, — one
to stay the Duke of Guise, as our sworn enemy,
from his singular superiority, the other to procure
us the restitution of Calais, or something to counter-
vail it.
R 2
244 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
The last month Mr. Henry Knollys was sent into
Germany with commission to join with Christopher
Mundt, and to solicit the Protestant princes both to
aid the Prince of Conde, and to consider how the
common cause of religion might be defended against
any common confederacy of the enemy. . . .
The matters betwixt the Queen's Majesty, and the
Queen of Scots, rests in these terms. The Queen's
Majesty was contented in June to accord upon an
interview in August with the Queen of Scots, coming
to Nottingham, so as the matters in France look
good ; and before the last of July, and because at
that time the troubles grew to be more desperate, the
interview was disappointed, and so excuse was sent
to the Queen of Scots by Sir Henry Sidney, with
offer to meet at York betwixt midsummer and the
end of August, which is like to succeed as the planets
of France shall be disposed. And nevertheless I find
the Queen's Majesty here so well disposed to keep
amity with the Queen of Scots, as surely the default
of their two agreements shall not grow from the
Queen here.
Her Majesty writeth to her at this present, and
maketh such distinction in her proceedings, as on
the one part she maketh her well assured of her love
towards her, and on the other she noteth plainly and
frankly her offence towards the Guises, which she so
tempereth by her letters of her own device to the
Queen of Scots, as I think she shall have cause to
think well of the Queen's Majesty, and to lament her
uncle's foolish proceedings. The said Queen of Scots,
upon the disappointment of the interview, made her
progress into the north parts of Scotland, where she
hath, as I hear, ministered both justice, and lost not
by her journey, as you know the Queen her mother
was wont to do upon the frontiers. The intelligence
betwixt this and that realm remaineth in the same
good terms as heretofore it did, and so is like to
continue, as I think, until the French seed be sown
to make division.
SWORN FRIENDS 245
It is amusing to compare Cecil's straightforward tone
with the florid style in which Elizabeth sought to convince
Mary of the righteousness of his decision to help the
Huguenots — a word, apparently, which she had never heard
before :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
October 15, 1562.
Very dear Sister,
If it were not impossible that one should forget
her own heart, I should fear you thought I had
drunk the water of Lethe ; but I assure you that,
besides there is no such river in England, you are
the chief cause of the fault. For the long delay in
the arrival of your messenger prevented my writing
as formerly. And hearing you were on such long
pilgrimage, I thought it would hinder you ; as
another occasion restrained me from writing of the
tragedies every week brought to my ears. On my
honour I assure you that until the ravens croaked,
I kept the stopped ears of Ulysses. But when I saw
that my councillors and subjects thought me too
much beguiled, my intellect gone astray and mind
improvident, I awoke from slumber, thinking myself
unworthy to govern my kingdom if I could not be
Prometheus in my affairs, as I have known Epi-
metheus. But remembering how it greatly touched
your's, my God ! how I felt at heart — not for them,
you know that well — but for that one to whom I wish
all the good she can desire, greatly fearing lest you
think these old sparks may fan this new fire. Not-
withstanding, when I saw that necessity had no law,
and that we must guard our houses from spoil, when
our neighbours are burning, I had no suspicion but
you would lift the veil from nature and look at the
bare course of reason. For what hope can be in
strangers when cruelty so abounds in a family ?
I pass over in silence the murders on land, the
burials in water, and say nothing of men cut in
246 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
pieces ; but pregnant women strangled, with the
sighs of infants at their mothers' breasts, pierce me
through.1 What drug of rhubarb can purge the bile
which these tyrannies engender ? In these broils
my own subjects have lost their goods, ships and
lives, and received a new name, formerly unknown
to me, c'est Hugenots* The faults charged on the
poor soldiers, will remain on the wicked chiefs, who
though daily admonished, instead of correcting one
evil, do twenty ! My letters from the King and
Queen Mother show me he is only King in title.
I cannot suffer such evils, as a good neighbour.
You shall have no occasion to charge me with
deceit, having never promised what I will not per-
form. If I send my people to these foreign ports,
I have no other end than to help the King. Think
of me as honourably as my good will to you merits ;
and though I know what finesse has been and will
be used, to draw you from the affection I am assured
you bear me, yet I trust so much in this heart which
I preserve3 — that sooner shall rivers surmount their
channels than it shall alter its intention. My hot
fever prevents me writing more.
The fever was far more serious than Elizabeth realised.
On the very night after this letter was written Cecil was
hurriedly sent for and told by the physician to prepare for
the worst. It is easy to imagine the consternation which
ensued when it was known that in the midst of all these
trials and anxieties Elizabeth had developed small-pox and
was like to die with the problem of the succession still
unsolved. Quadra paints a vivid picture of the situation,
and also bears witness to the Queen's solemn protest on
her bed of sickness — obviously of far greater weight at such
1 I have ventured to correct this sentence in the Scottish Calendar,
which runs: " Pregnant women strangled, with the sighs of infants
at mothers' breasts, do not stir me." Froude's translation from the
original French agrees with the above.
2 The origin of the word has been variously traced. By some it
is from Hugues, a Genevese Calvinist, the French reformers being
Calvin ists.
8 The heart set with diamonds which Mary Stuart had sent
Elizabeth (see pp. 237-8).
SWORN FRIENDS 247
a time than ordinarily — that " although she loved Lord
Robert Dudley dearly, as God was her witness, nothing
improper had ever passed between them " :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
October 25, 1562.
. . . The Queen was at Hampton Court on the roth
instant, and feeling unwell thought she would like a
bath. The illness turned out to be small-pox, and
the cold caught by leaving her bath for the air resulted
in so violent a fever that on the seventh day she was
given up, but during that night the eruption came
out and she is now better. There was great excite-
ment that day in the palace, and if her improvement
had not come soon some hidden thoughts would have
become manifest. The Council discussed the succes-
sion twice, and I am told there were three different
opinions. Some wished King Henry's will to be
followed and Lady Catherine declared heiress.
Others who found flaws in the will were in favour of
the Earl of Huntingdon. Lord Robert, the Earl
of Bedford, the Earl of Pembroke, and the Duke of
Norfolk with others of the lower rank were in favour
of this. The most moderate and sensible tried to
dissuade the others from being in such a furious
hurry, and said they would divide and ruin the
country unless they summoned jurists of the greatest
standing in the country to examine the rights of the
claimants, and in accordance with this decision the
Council should then unanimously take such steps as
might be best in the interests of justice and the good
of the country. The Marquis Treasurer (Winchester)
was of this opinion with others, although only a few,
as the rest understood that this was a move in favour
of the Catholic religion, nearly all the jurists who
would be called upon to decide being of that faith, and
this delay would give time for your Majesty to take
steps in the matter, which is the thing these heretics
248 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
fear most, for upon your Majesty's absence they found
all their hopes.
During this discussion the Queen improved, and on
recovering from the crisis which had kept her
unconscious, and speechless for two hours, the first
thing she said was to beg her Council to make Lord
Robert protector of the kingdom with a title and an
income of 2O,ooo/. Everything she asked was
promised, but will not be fulfilled. On the 2oth he
and the Duke of Norfolk were admitted to the
Council, and it is said he will shortly be made Earl
of la Marche (?).
The Queen protested at the time that although she
loved and had always loved Lord Robert dearly, as
God was her witness, nothing improper had ever
passed between them. She ordered a groom of the
Chamber, called Tamworth, who sleeps in Lord
Robert's room, to be granted an income of 5oo/. a
year. She also especially recommended her cousin
Hunsdon to the Council, as well as her household
generally. This demonstration has offended many
people. The various grants were made in the fear
that another crisis might prove fatal, but as she is
well again they all fall to the ground, except Lord
Robert's favour, which always continues, and, as the
Queen will not be visible for some time owing to the
disfigurement of her face, the audiences will be all to
him alone, except a few to the Duke (of Norfolk)
whom they have forced into it.
I think French affairs will be dealt with by
Lord Robert in the way he has always advocated,
namely, for peace and alliance. Your Majesty's
affairs will be referred to the Duke, as they know he
is friendly with me. The Queen was unable to see
me for the purpose of receiving your Majesty's protest
against the French war, but I had an interview with
the Council, where I was received with some altera-
tions and innovations, in the usual course, that were
full of malicious intent. I was introduced by the
Bishop of Rochester, and having read to them the
SWORN FRIENDS 249
document from your Majesty, Cecil spoke for the rest,
and divided his answer under three heads. First, that
the Queen, considering the Guises her enemies,
and their excessive authority in France dangerous,
was therefore determined to resist it. Secondly,
that the King of France and his mother, being
oppressed and almost prisoners, she was resolved to
deliver them.
Thirdly, that as her co-religionists in France were
persecuted and ill-treated she had decided to aid them.
I replied that I had nothing to say about the Guises,
and as to the second point I could only say that it
was extraordinary, false, and absurd. Everybody
knew that it was not true, and it was nothing less
than an insult to his Majesty (the King of Spain,)
who, as they well knew, considered the present
government of France a good and a just one, to call
its acts tyranny and captivity. The King my master,
I said would, if necessary, use all his strength to
protect his brother-in-law. As to the last point about
aiding their co-religionists, I said such a thing
was so unreasonable and scandalous that I did not
believe any one failed to see it, and to recognise
how badly they were acting in picking a quarrel in
this way, which was only setting all Christendom by
the ears.
I pointed out, too, how improper it was for the
Queen to promote religious changes in other
countries, and how much more seemly it was for a
Christian ruler to protect the ancient and true
Catholic faith established by the law, and punish all
attempts to overturn it.
Cecil thereupon began to treat the matter excitedly,
confounding and mixing the various points, and made
much of the Guises' share in the loss of Calais, of
which he said they had robbed this country through
your Majesty. I said Calais had been lost by those
who defended it not knowing how to hold it, and not
owing to any relationship of the French with your
Majesty, as the Secretary inferred, and I thought it
250 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
was very wrong that matters so unfit for open dis-
cussion should be written about in pamphlets, and
that all this was only to make your Majesty
unpopular.
The Secretary said that was so, as there was no
person who did not know that that war had been
made only to please your Majesty, and to the great
danger of this country. I replied that members who
were in the Council at the time of that war could
speak of that best, as they were present now, when
Pembroke, Arundel, and Clinton said that your
Majesty and the Queen alone had wished for
the war, and not a single member of the Council
approved of it, followed by other angry and foolish
expressions.
While Elizabeth was sickening for the small-pox, Mary
was so far siding with her Protestant lords as to suppress her
chief Catholic noble, the Earl of Huntly, who died in arms
against her at Corrichie, falling suddenly, as Randolph
informed Cecil, " without blow or stroke, stark dead."
Whether Mary had any ulterior motive in marching against
Huntly — whether, as Knox believed, she was acting as an
accomplice of Huntly in some deep-laid scheme which had
begun with an end in view very different from Huntly 's
defeat and death, or was led by Lord James for his own
aggrandizement, will never be known for certain, and the
historians must be left to differ on the subject. Randolph,
who accompanied her, and as Andrew Lang says, "a man
not easily deceived," was convinced that Mary had become
hostile to Huntly, and was intent on punishing him. His
hot-headed son, John Gordon, whose unruly love for her was
the cause of his undoing, was made prisoner, and afterwards
executed at Aberdeen. It was to silence the rumours that
she had encouraged him in his love that, at her brother's
request, she witnessed his clumsy execution. Small wonder
that she fainted at the hideous spectacle. Randolph found
her in first-rate spirits, however, after declaring at the
trial " how detestable a part Huntly thought to have used
against her " :
SWORN FRIENDS 251
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
ABERDEEN, November 2, 1562.
On Thursday at her Grace's supper, I showed
myself, and, immediately, as I entered the chamber
where she sat : " Well sir," said she, " I know that
you have writings for me from my good sister ; how
will you answer unto your mistress that have kept
them from me so long ? " I excused myself as loath
to trouble her when occupied. " You might know,"
said she, " that nothing importeth me more than to
hear from her, especially in these times — you know
the occasion why." I answered I was not ignorant,
and that delay could not hinder it. Her Grace spoke
this that those about might gather that good will
between my mistress and her Grace is so great as to
be disadvantageous to any wishing evil to either.
" Let me see," said she, "what you have for me." I
said I had a great packet, too much for her to read
before supper. " Let me but have a sight of it, and
I will end my supper," said she. When I presented
only a little letter ; " What," said she, " if it be no
more than this, I will defer it no longer ; it will help
to digest my supper ; but," said she, " this is not my
sister's own hand." I said whosoever wrote the
superscription, the letter was her own handwriting.
She guessed incontinently the superscription was
your's, and on opening the letter, said she knew the
hand well enough. She read the whole incontinently,
her countenance being before prepared, that whatso-
ever was contained in it no alteration should be found
in her in the reading. After she had done, she passed
the rest of supper in mirth, as at the beginning.
Then she said — " Now Mr. Randolph I trust we shall
the next year travel as far south as we have done
north, with as much ease and more pleasure than we
have had of this journey." I answered it would be
much better, for the good success she had in that
enterprise, and assured quiet at home, also a pleasant
journey abroad, seeing nothing was intended but to
252 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
the honour of God and weal of both countries, with
my mistress's good will, and, I doubted not, her
grace's. " There will be now," said she, "some
better willing to go this year than was the
last." She meant I suppose the Duke, who was
confederate with the Earl against that purpose.
After supper she entered her chamber, and called me
aside, and said in this sort: " Mr. Randolph, is my
sister sick ? " I showed her by my Lord Robert's
and your letters, that she had the small-pox, which
was very noisome unto her Majesty. She said it
was a hot fever, and showed me the last line of my
mistress's letter. When I resolved her of the truth,
she said she was glad it was no worse, for though the
disease were cumbersome, yet the danger was not
great if good attendance were given to her Majesty.
" But now," said she, " to other purpose ; we shall
talk of this more hereafter. Your mistress, my sister,
writeth unto me a long letter, of the which I take
pleasure, though the matter be such as I am sorry
for the occasion. She declareth the intention why
she sendeth presently men into France, and her good
will towards the French king, my good brother, and
his subjects, whom she allegeth to be unjustly done
unto by such as have at their own hand taken upon
much more than became true subjects to their
sovereign ; whereby the whole realm of France is
disquieted, and her own state in danger, if such have
the upper hand that have been the occasion of all
these troubles ; as though there were in time as much
intended against her Majesty as is now in hand and
practice against other. Wherefore she would that I
should lay aside all affection, and judge of her doings
with a simple eye of reason, that I might be better
able to judge of the cause with indifference, when all
other motions were set apart. "Well," said she,
" howsoever the matter be, God knoweth my intention
and mind I bear to my uncles, how I favour their
doings ; and what I think of my good sister your
mistress in this matter. God knoweth how indifferent
SWORN FRIENDS 253
I am to them both, but what I doubt may be the
success of their enterprises. I will be plain with you,
that I think the one doth nothing but by command-
ment, and as by duty he is bound, and that the other
might have as well provided for herself as to have
entered into a new combination in the time of a
young prince, whereof how good soever her meaning
be, the worst will be always spoken and thought. I
do rather therefore fear the success and dangers that
may issue, than that I think there is any private
malice in your mistress towards any man there.
And yet I think not so evil of my uncles, but I must
say this in their defence, that I believe they have no
other purpose with them than that which ought to be
in true subjects to their prince, and that they do
nothing but that which is their sovereign's pleasure,
and so to be judged of him how long soever he live.
As I heartily wish them well, and by nature am bound
so to do : so would I be loath to condemn all other
that are not of my mind, or to mislike your mistress's
doings so much, that in respect of any of my uncles'
doings there, I would break friendship or give over
kindness, seeing we are so far entered in amity the
one with the other. So may you report of me, and
you yourself may be judge of my mind, that know my
doings. As she requireth me to weigh the matter
with reason, so doubt I not but she will find it
reasonable that I continue in love with them both, as
by nature I am bound unto them both, and for
their hearty kindness towards me do love them
equally ; and so long as the action is common to
more as well as it is to my uncles, I doubt no more of
her evil will towards them, than I do to other that
have travailed in this case as far as they ! "
Huntly's death was a great blow to the waning strength
of the Catholics in Scotland, and Mary depended more and
more upon her Protestant leaders. She still found in Knox,
however, an implacable foe, who construed all her light-
heartedness, and the love of gaiety which had grown with
254 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
her life at the Court of France, as devil's handiwork, and
raved because she refused to forsake the Mass. Yet Mary
appeared to be in excellent spirits after her return from this
exciting expedition to the North, where her only regret was,
as Randolph says, " that she was not a man, to know what
life it was to lie all night in the fields, or to walk on the
causeway with a jack and knapsack, a Glasgow buckler, and
a broadsword " : l
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
EDINBURGH, December, 1562.
Mr. Knox has often told me he is to blame for not
writing to your honour of long time, and lately
required me to convey a letter to you. I know his
good zeal and affection to our nation, and his great
travail and care to unite the hearts of the princes and
people in perpetual love and kindness. I know that
he mistrusts more in his own sovereign's part than he
does of ours. " He hath no hope " to use his own
terms " that she will ever come to God, or do good in
the commonwealth " ; he is so full of mistrust in all her
doings, words, and sayings, as though he were either
of God's privy counsel, that knew how he had deter-
mined of her from the beginning, or that he knew the
secrets of her heart so well that neither she did " or
could have for ever one good thought of God or of His
true religion ! " Of these matters we commune oft.
I yield as much as in conscience I may unto him,
though we in some things differ in judgment. His
fear is that new strangers be brought into this realm.
I fear and doubt the same, yet see no likelihood, nor
can give any reason why, more than he. Whom she
shall marry I cannot think, nor hear of none that go
about her. Those that talk with me of Spain, can
never make it sink into my head ; for the Swede, she
says herself she will not, and the others farther off
are like to take great pains for little profit ! So that
by marriage I see not what number shall come to
possess this realm again as before, or able to make
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 651.
SWORN FRIENDS 255
party against so many confirmed Protestants as are
now here. If the Guises be victorious in France, the
matter is more to be doubted, and that we fear most ;
but God I trust hath stirred up such a party against
him, that that shall pass his power, and no less befall
him than in the end God sendeth unto all such blood-
thirsty tyrants as he is !
As Mr. Knox hath opined unto your Honour his fear,
so am I bold also to let your Honour know my opinion,
both what cause he hath not so deeply to fear, nor so
far to mistrust in the goodness of God, but that this
woman may in time be called to the knowledge of His
truth, or at the least that she have not that force to
suppress His Evangelist here, or to break that amity
and concord that is so well begun, and I trust shall
take such progress that His glory may be known,
and the posterity of both the realms rejoice for ever,
and give Him thanks for the workers of the same. On
Sunday last he inveighed sore against the Queen
dancing and little exercise of herself in virtue or godli-
ness. The report being brought to her ears yesterday
she sent for him, and talked long time with him.
Little liking there was between them of the one or the
other, yet did they so depart as no offence or slander
did rise thereupon. She willed him to speak his con-
science, as he would answer before God, as she would
also in her doings.
It was about this time that Bothwell, who had escaped
from prison after his arrest — to answer Arran's unsupported
charge of conspiracy to carry off the Queen to Dumbarton —
was arrested in England. The Duke of Chatelherault had
himself begged Mary not to make Bothwell the victim of the
wild charges of his demented son, but the Earl was kept
imprisoned at Edinburgh while Mary was making her expedi-
tion to the North. It was during her absence that he had burst
the bars of his prison windows and escaped down the castle
rock during the night of August 28th by means of a rope.
The downfall of the Earl of Huntly and the proportionate
increase of Lord James's rank and power decided him to
256 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
return to France until the times were more propitious at
home. As luck would have it his ship was driven by storms
to seek shelter at Holy Island, near Berwick, where, being
detained by Sir Thomas Dacre, he begged the Earl of
Northumberland to solicit Elizabeth to retain him under her
protection rather than have him delivered over to his enemies
in Scotland. Elizabeth's form of protection was to lock him
up safely in the Tower of London for more than a year.
Doubtless she regarded him as a useful pawn to keep in reserve,
as Quadra plainly hinted. Very probably, too, Elizabeth —
or Cecil — remembered Throckmorton's words when Bothwell
suddenly left France in the winter of 1560, boasting that he
would do great things in Scotland : " He is a glorious, rash
and hazardous young man ; and therefore it were meet his
adversaries should both have an eye to him and also keep
him short." l Randolph plainly hated him like poison :
" I take it in good part" Mary told Randolph "that
the Queen my good sister's officers for good will
towards me, have apprehended the Lord Bothwell, who
hath over greatly failed towards me ; wherefore I pray
you write unto the Queen your mistress that I do desire
that he may be sent hither again into Scotland, so
shall the pleasure be great and I will with glad will
requite the same."2 Randolph promised to do as she
requested, " and sought occasion to talk of other
things, and took leave. So your Honour knows both
her Grace's desire and the lord's. One thing I must
not omit — I know him as mortal an enemy to our
whole nation as any man alive, despiteful out of
measure, false and untrue as a devil. If his power
had been [equal] to the will he hath, neither the
Queen's Majesty had stood in so good terms of amity
with this Queen as she doth, nor minister left alive
that should be a travailer between their Majesties for
the continuance of the same. If I had made any
account of his threatenings, or could have doubted
his malice, your Honour had heard before this time
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. I., p. 679.
2 Hardwicke State Papers, Nov. 28, 1560.
SWORN FRIENDS 257
what just occasion I have had only to esteem him as
here I report him to be, but also to seek that revenge
which justly I ought to seek of an enemy to my
country, a blasphemous and an irreverent speaker
both of his own sovereign and the Queen's Majesty
my mistress, and one that the godly of this whole
nation hath a cause to curse for ever, that by that
dishonourable and (not to offend your Honour's ears)
thievish act that he committed against the Laird of
Ormiston, adventured the loss of the chief nobility of
this realm. You will pardon me thus angrily to write ;
it is much less than I think or have good cause, or he
should find if my power were [equal] to the mind I
bear to all of his sort.1
In France, in the meantime, the English expedition had
done little except to rouse the deep-rooted hatred of the
nation against the intruders. Elizabeth would not send an
army as far as Rouen, where help was badly needed, being
content to hold Havre as security for Calais. Poynings,
however, who went over with the first detachment of 3,000
men, risked her displeasure by permitting five hundred
men to make a desperate attempt to force their way to
Rouen through the besieging army and reinforce the feeble
garrison. They only succeeded with the loss of most of
these gallant men, the rest struggling through only to fall in
the final defence of the town. The news of this disaster was
a heavy blow to English hopes. When Dudley first heard of
it he did not dare to tell Elizabeth at once that Rouen had
actually fallen. Her distress of mind at the bare possibility
of such an event is apparent in the postscript, which she
wrote with her own hand, to the letter of encouragement
immediately forwarded by her Council to the Earl of Warwick :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE EARL OF WARWICK.
[Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England."]
My dear Warwick,
If your honour and my desire could accord with
the loss of the needfulest finger I keep, God so help
Randolph to Cecil, Jan. 22, 1563, Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.
E.M.S. S
258 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
me in my utmost need, as I would gladly lose that
one joint for your safe abode with me ; but since I
cannot that I would, I will do that I may, and will
rather drink in an ashen cup than you and yours
should not be succoured, both by sea and land, and
that with all speed possible ; and let this my scribbling
hand witness it to them all.
Yours as my own,
E.R.
A few lines like that tell us far more of the secret of
Elizabeth's influence — the magic power that made men
willing to do and dare anything for their liege lady's sake —
than all the laboured metaphorical letters which it some-
times pleased her Majesty to write. The loss of Rouen was
followed on December 19 by the greater disaster of Dreux,
at which battle at least 6,000 men were slain — the slaughter
being great on both sides — and the Prince of Conde" taken
prisoner. " Except Almighty God show His arm and power,"
wrote Cecil to Sir Thomas Smith when news of this disaster
reached him, " this web is undone and new to begin."
The Princess of Conde" wrote a pathetic letter to Elizabeth
— here translated from the original French printed by Forbes
— beseeching her Majesty's prompt assistance :
THE PRINCESS OF CONDfi TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Forbes' "Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth."}
[ORLEANS, January 5, 1563.]
Madame,
My uncle, Monsieur d'Andelot, is writing to you of
the need which we have of your prompt favour and
good succour, in order to prevent the fulfilment of
the designs of the enemies of God and His Gospel,
and the disturbers of the public peace of France ;
and I am unable to restrain myself from accompany-
ing his dispatch with this my letter, and humbly to
entreat your Majesty to consider the affliction in
which I find myself so sadly ; seeing to-day how
shamefully treated is Monsieur my husband, whom I
honour and esteem more than anything in the world,
SWORN FRIENDS 259
held captive in the hands of those, who, instead of
recognizing him for what he is in this kingdom, usurp
violently what the law and nature rightly deny them,
striving to triumph over him. There is nothing of
which it is less hard or more utterly insupportable for
me to think : and, without the grace which God gives
me, representing before my eyes that such visitations
come from His hand, and that they are the sign
with which He marks His own, I do not know what
I should do.
But, however much He may have wished by this
means to prove it, even when in defence of His holy
quarrel, yet He has not forbidden us to have some
recourse to human methods, provided they are
established on His grace. And for this cause,
Madame, take pity on a Princess, who has wept so
much for the grief which she properly and justly feels
from the imprisonment of a prince her husband,
whom it has pleased you to favour so much, judging
him worthy of your gracious indulgence, as declared
by the virtuous tokens you have so openly shown him
in pursuance of this cause. May it please you to
prove in this urgent necessity how no variety in the
conditions of prosperity or adversity can change your
sacred affections ; and promptly to aid him who, for
the glory of our God, and in order faithfully to pre-
serve the estate of his King is now the prisoner of
those who, in order to succeed in their designs, would
be well pleased to strike down such a rampart of this
crown, so that they may afterwards, making more
easily the breach, march into the fortress. I entreat
you very humbly, Madame, to excuse me if I speak of
it with such vehemence ; and that you will so oblige
Monsieur my husband that he may be able some day
to have the means of showing you by his services
that ingratitude and unthankfulness have no place in
his heart. And as for me, Madame, being unable at
this moment to do anything else, I will pray to the
Creator that he may preserve you in perfect health,
and grant you a long and happy life, saluting
s 2
260 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
your good grace with my very humble recommenda-
tions.
When Elizabeth wrote her reply she little dreamt how
near the Princess was to realising her fondest hopes :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE PRINCESS OF CONDE\
[Forbes' " Full View of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth."]
January 26, 1563.
Madame,
I have received your letters of the 5th of this
month : and, while I can only condole very greatly
with you on the misfortune which has befallen my
cousin, the Prince of Conde, your husband, on the
day of battle, I am yet very greatly pleased to hear
that God, in His providence, has so moderated the
event of the said day, that He has left to the enemy
no just occasion for exulting in it ; although, by the
course he takes, he tries to persuade the world that
the victory was on his side. And inasmuch as he
nevertheless shows himself so obstinate that he will
not hear of any reasonable agreement, yet pursues
his first designs with all his strength, I have no doubt
that God, at the last, of His infinite goodness, will
only bring about such end as you desire, it being
truly His own cause : begging you, Madame, there-
fore, to console yourself with every good hope ;
assuring you also that this accident to the said Lord
Prince has in nothing abated our favour to him. I
hold myself still more steadfast and resolved to aid
him and his associates by every good means in my
power ; as I have very fully made known to Monsieur
le Vidame de Chartres and the Sieurs de Briquemault
and de la Haye lately here, and also by my letters
now written to Monsieur the Admiral : praying God,
Madame, my good Cousin, that He may have you
in His holy keeping, and make you joyful with what
you desire.
On February 18 the Duke of Guise was shot by an assassin
at Orleans and died six days later, whereupon the war
SWORN FRIENDS 261
came to an end, Conde and the Queen Mother, with the
Constable and d'Andelot, temporarily settling their religious
differences with the compromise published in the Edict of
Amboise. While this was happening Elizabeth's second
Parliament was meeting and vainly endeavouring to settle
the vital problem of the Queen's marriage and the succession.
In reply to the petition presented by the Speaker, Thomas
Williams, drawn up by a committee of the House of Commons,
and agreed to by the Lords, the Queen, as usual, deferred
her decision. Her answer on this occasion is so characteristic
that it is worth printing in full :
THE QUEEN'S ANSWER TO THE SPEAKER.
[Harington's " Nugce Antique."]
Williams,
I have heard by you the common request of my
Commons, which I may well term, as methinks, the
whole realm ; because they give, as I have heard, in
all these matters of Parliament, their common consent
to such as be here assembled. The weight and
greatness of this matter might cause in me, as I
must confess, being a woman, wanting both wit and
memory, some fear to speak, and bashfulness besides,
a thing appropriate to my sex. But yet the princely
state and kingly office (wherein God, though unworthy,
hath constituted me) maketh these two causes to
seem little in mine eyes, though grievous perhaps to
your ears, and boldeneth me (that notwithstanding)
to say somewhat in this matter, which I mean only
to touch, but not presently to answer ; for this so
great a demand needeth both great and grave advice.
I read a philosopher, whose deeds upon this occasion
I remember better than his name, who always, when
he was required to give answer in any hard question
of school points, would rehearse over his alphabet,
before he would proceed to any further answer therein,
not for that he could not presently have answered,
but to have his wit the riper, and better sharpened
to answer the matter withal. If he, a private man,
but in matters of school, took such delay, the better
262 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
to show his eloquence, great cause may justly move
me, in this so great a matter touching the benefit of
this realm, and the safety of you all, to defer my
answer to some other time ; wherein, I assure you,
the consideration of mine own safety, although I
thank you for the great care that you seem to have
thereof, shall be little in comparison of that great
regard that I mean to have of the safety and surety
of you all: and though God of late seemed to touch
me rather like one that He chastised, than one that
He punished ; and though death possessed almost
every joint of me, so as I wished then that the
feeble thread of life, which lasted methought all too
long, might, by Clotho's l hand, have quickly been
cut off; yet desired not I life then (as I have some
witness here) so much for mine own safety as for
yours ; for I knew that, in exchange of this reign,
I should have enjoyed a better reign, where residence
is perpetual. There needs no boding of my bane.
I know as well now as I did before that I am mortal ;
I know, also, that I must seek to discharge myself
of that great burden that God hath here laid upon
me : for of them to whom much is committed, much is
required.
Think not that I, that in other matters have had
convenient care of you all, will in this matter,
touching the safety of myself and you all be careless.
For know, that this matter toucheth me much nearer
than it doth you all, who, if the worst happen, can
lose but your bodies : but I, if I take not that con-
venient care that it behoveth me to have therein,
I hazard to lose both body and soul ; and though
I am determined, in this so great and weighty a
matter, to defer my answer till some other time,
because I will not, in so deep a matter, wade with
so shallow a wit : yet have I thought good to use
these few words, as well to show you that I am
neither careless nor unmindful of your safeties in
1 Clotho : though Atropos seems to have been the destiny whom
her Majesty meant to employ. — Thomas Park, " Nugce Antiques."
SWORN FRIENDS 263
this case ; as I trust you likewise do not forget, that
by me you were delivered while you were yet hanging
on the bough, ready to fall into the mud, yea, to be
drowned in the doing ; neither yet the promises
which you have now made me concerning your
duties and due obedience, wherewith I may and
mean to charge you, as further to let you understand
that I neither mislike of your request herein, nor of
that great care that you seem to have of your own
safety in this matter.
Lastly, because I will discharge some restless
heads, in whose brains the needless hammers beat
with vain judgment that I should mislike this their
petition ; I say that, of the matter, some thereof I
like and allow very well ; as to the circumstances, if
any be, I mean, upon further advice, further to
answer. And so I assure you all, that though, after
my death, you may have many stepdames, yet shall
you never have any a more natural mother than I
mean to be unto you all.
It was impossible to bind her to anything more definite,
though repeated attempts were made. There was no
desperate hurry, she would reply; she was still young.
Cecil had his hands full with this and other parliamentary
business, besides the anxious affairs of Scotland and France.
He could not forbear a groan when writing to Sir Thomas
Smith of affairs in general at this anxious time :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH.
[Wright's "Elizabeth and her Times."]
February 27, 1563.
Sir,
Mr. Somers returned hither on Thursday at
night, who, beside the letters which he brought, was
able to report of certainty that which we here were
very glad to hear, I mean of the hurt of the Duke of
Guise, whose soul I could wish in heaven, and
mine also.
264 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Since Sir Nicholas Throckmorton went to New-
haven,1 I have heard nothing certain of the Admiral
but that he should have put two thousand men into
Caen ; but the castle was held by the Marquis
d'Elbceuf. His reiters shall receive their pay, of
the which Mr. Throckmorton carrieth with him
twenty thousand pounds, and yesterday, I think,
passed ten thousand pounds more from Portsmouth.
This day commission passeth from hence to the
Count of Oldenburg, to levy eight thousand footmen,
and four thousand horse, who will I trust pass into
France with speed and courage. He is a notable,
grave, and puissant Captain, and fully bent to hazard
his life in the cause of religion.
The bearer of these letters cometh from the Lord
of Lethington, who is here to motion to the Duke of
Guise, and consequently to that King, that the
Queen of Scots, his mistress, might be a means of
peace, but how unmeet a means some will think her,
I doubt. Nevertheless the office is meet for a
Christian Prince, and God send success ! . . . I am
so fully occupied to expedite matters in this Parlia-
ment that I have no leisure almost to attend any
other things. A subsidy and two fifteenths are
granted as big as ever any was. A like is granted
by the clergy. A law is passed for sharpening laws
against Papists, wherein some difficulty hath been,
because they be made very penal ; but such be the
humours of the Commons House, that they think
nothing sharp enough against Papists.2
Very good laws are in hand for increase of fisher-
men, and consequently the mariners and navy. Fish
1 Sir Nicholas Throckmorton arrived at Newhaven (Havre) on
February 14, 1563.
2 At the Pope's council at Rome, this year (says Wright, in
printing this letter), " among other infamous resolutions, was the
following: 'A pardon to be granted to any that would assault the
Queen, or to any cook, brewer, baker, vinter, physician, grocer,
chirurgeon, or of any other calling whatsoever that would make her
away. And an absolute remission of sins to the heirs of that party's
family, and a perpetual annuity to them for ever, and to be of the
privy council to whomsoever afterwards should reign.' "
SWORN FRIENDS 265
is much favoured, and Wednesday meant to be
observed like Saturday, and sundry other things
therein provided.1 I have been author of a short
law, not exceeding twelve lines, whereby is ordered
that if any man will sell any foreign commodity to
any person, for apparel, and without ready money,
or without payment within twenty-eight days, the
seller shall be without his remedy.
There is also a very good law agreed upon
for indifferent allowances for servants' wages in
husbandry. Many other good laws are passed the
nether House, as for toleration of usury under ten
per cent, (which notwithstanding I durst not allow) ;
another against Egyptians,2 another to remedy the
defrauding of statutes for tillage.
Yesterday were condemned two Poles, Fortescue,
one Spencer, and Bingham, servants to the Lord
Hastings of Loughborough,3 and one Berwick.
Fortescue confessed all, and so was attainted, and
is thereby never to take hold of mercy. The
treasons were intents to come with a power into
Wales, and to proclaim the Scottish Queen. The
traitors seek their defence by saying that they meant
it not before the Queen our Sovereign should die,
which, as they were persuaded by one Prestall,
should be about this March. But I trust God
hath more store of His mercies for us, than so to
cast us over to devouring lions. . . .
Yours assured,
W. CECIL.
It may here be added that in addition to Elizabeth's
second Parliament there was held at the same time a
Convocation of the Province of Canterbury. This was
1 The Papists laughed at these fast days for the encouragement
of fishing. The Wednesday they called Cecil's Fast (Jejuneum
Cecilianum). — Wright.
2 Gipsies.
8 Sir Edward Hastings, first Baron Hastings, of Loughborough,
a powerful Catholic under Mary. He had been imprisoned in 1561
for hearing Mass, but was released on taking the oath of supremacy.
266 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
made memorable by the publication of the famous " Thirty-
Nine Articles," which were, practically speaking, Cranmer's
forty-two, revised and reduced by Parker in the successful
spirit of compromise which played so large a part in the
Elizabethan Settlement.
CHAPTER VII
LOVE AND WAR
The Chastelard Affair — Lethington's Mission to London — Discusses
the Prospects of Mary Stuart's Marriage with Don Carlos —
Elizabeth Offers the Hand of Lord Robert Dudley — Philip II.
Spoils Another Opportunity — Catholic Support for Mary Stuart
in England — Why Elizabeth Refused to Nominate Mary as her
Successor — Huntingdon's Letter of Loyalty — End of the First
Religious War in France — Elizabeth Refuses to Evacuate Havre
— Warwick's Fight Against Hopeless Odds — Don Carlos and
Mary Stuart — Elizabeth's Warning on the Subject — Death of
Bishop Quadra — Closing Scenes at Havre — The Plague Spreads
to England — Lady Catherine Grey and Lord Hertford Removed
for Safety — Lady Catherine's Disillusioned Hopes — Elizabeth's
Love of Hunting and Archbishop Parker's Love of Venison.
ENTER Chastelard, hapless victim of one of the tragic love
romances of history, according to Swinburne and Froude ;
villain of the most despicable type, according to his critics.
Froude pictures Chastelard as a lovelorn young poet and
musician sighing at Mary's feet both during her voyage to
Scotland, and afterwards for some months at Holyrood.
" He went back to France, but could not remain there.
The moth was recalled to the flame whose warmth was life
and death to it." Lethington, on the other hand, as will be
seen on p. 280, depicted him as a reckless conspirator, sent
specially to compromise Mary by her enemies in France.
He was undoubtedly welcomed and made one of her favourite
attendants by Mary, who shocked both Knox and Randolph
by her indiscreet familiarities with him. According to Knox
she would "sometimes privily steal a kiss from his neck;"
but she ordered him away when he went the length of hiding
in her bedroom. Nothing daunted, he made another and
more desperate attempt ; and lost his head for his pains :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. I.]
ST. ANDREWS, February 28, 1863.
I promised in my last I would write more amply ot
Chastelard's bold attempt ; but there were so many
divers reports ; and contrary judgments as to what
268 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
should become of him, that for long time I could
come by no certainty. I also absented myself from
the Court, lest I had been required to be suitor for
him, whom I judged even more worthy of 500 deaths
than of one jot of the favour I saw was borne to him.
I arrived here on Ash Wednesday, and heard by the
way that on Monday before he was beheaded. After
conferring with some friends I understood for certain
that this was proved — that the night before the Queen
departed out of Edinburgh towards this town, he was
found lying under the Queen's bed with his sword
beside him and his dagger about him, the Queen being
ready to go into her bed ; whereof the Queen was
not made privy until the morrow, for disquieting of
her that night, and in the morning, being advertised,
she commanded him out of her presence. He not-
withstanding followed her to Dunfermlin,and either by
some word or token finding (as he thought) her wrath
appeased, took new courage upon him, and at her
coming unto Burnt Island (the third day after her
departure from Edinburgh) the Queen being in her
chamber, no man in her company, only certain of
her gentlewomen about her, he cometh in alone, and
desireth that he might purge himself of that crime
that he was charged with, denying that he was found
under her Grace's bed, but said that being in her
Grace's chamber late, and finding himself for want
of sleep, got him unto the next place that was at
hand, which was unto the most secret place of
the whole house, where her Grace did resort unto
about her most private affairs. . . . Though this was
evil enough, and greater boldness in him than any
man of a far greater calling ought to have done — yet
he was convicted by sufficient witnesses that he was
not found there, but under the bed. He was then
committed to ward, the next day sent to St. Andrews,
and five or six days after, his head cut off in the open
market place on market day. He died repentant,
confessing privately more than he spoke openly.1
1 Knox, who declared that Chastelard lost his head "that his
LOVE AND WAR 269
His purpose the night he was found under the bed
was to have tried her constancy, and by force to have
attempted that which by no persuasions he could
attain unto, whereby ensued the reward of so rash an
enterprise of such an unworthy creature ever to think
to come by that which she herself (I believe) judgeth
very few in the world worthy of. Thus your Honour
understands the matter as truly as any man can
report it. She has taken some grief of mind, but
begins to be merry again. Hereof she never had
purpose with me herself, but divers of her gentle-
woman and others have no small regret that such a
thing should have chanced. Their sorrow will pass
and the wonder blown over in nine days. The man
that takes most sorrow is the Earl of Murray, lest
worse be judged of it, and of the familiar usage of
such a varlet than was meant by her.
Much is hoped of Lethington's travail. The godly
trust her Majesty will never desert the poor Protest-
ants for any persuasion made — though it is long since
we heard from your Honour how things prosper among
them. Since Raulet's arrival here, never came letter
from France to this Queen, for all the fair promises
and offer of service to her Grace by the venerable
Cardinal of A., I mean the Bishop of Arras, who in
his last letters hither wrote very despitefully of our
sovereign's doings in France. There lacks no good
will in him to work mischief.
It is vehemently suspected there is some practice of
marriage — your Honour knows which way, if so be.
Others fear, if the Duke have his way, there will be
another alliance with France. We can only con-
jecture, for in this realm no man knows her mind.
Our preachers pray daily that God will keep us from
the bondage of strangers, and for herself in effect that
tongue should not utter the secrets of our Queen, concluded a godly
confession on the scaffold by looking unto the heavens and uttering
these words, O cruelle dame!" Brintome, who was not present,
declares that he consoled himself on the scaffold only with
Ronsard's "Hymn to Death," after reading which he cried aloud,
" Adieu, most beautiful and cruel princess ! "
270 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
God will either turn her heart, or send her short life !
Of what charity or spirit this proceedeth, I leave
to be discussed unto the great divines. . . .
By this time Lethington, as stated by Cecil in his last
letter, had arrived in London not only to offer Mary as a
mediator between Elizabeth and the Guises, but also to con-
tinue the negotiations for the acknowledgment of Mary's
right to the succession. The difference between the Reforma-
tion in England and in Scotland is illustrated by Cecil's
application for a restricted Lent licence for the Scottish
ambassador :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO ARCHBISHOP PARKER.
[Parker Correspondence.]
February 27, 1563.
My very good lord. The lord of Lethington, lately
sent to the Queen's Majesty from the Queen of Scots,
desireth to have the use of flesh this Lent. And
because he is a stranger come in this charge, I
heartily pray your Grace to consider of it, for his
satisfaction therein. Marry I trust you will order it
with as much restraint and limitation of days, with
the manner thereof for himself and his only, as is
meet for the example's sake. And so I bid your
Grace heartily farewell.
Your Grace's at command,
W. CECIL.
I beseech your Grace be not too light-handed in
licences to every person.
When the death of Guise, Mary's kinsman and most
powerful friend, upset Lethington's plans he turned to
Quadra to discuss the pros and cons of a marriage between
his mistress and Don Carlos, Spain being now her chief hope
of a Catholic backing in case it became necessary to assert
her rights to the English throne :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, March 18, 1563.
On the 27th ultimo I wrote to your Majesty that
Lethington, the Secretary of the Queen of Scotland,
LOVE AND WAR 271
had arrived here, and the cause of his coming so far
as I could then ascertain. Since then I have seen
him several times, and as it seemed to me that he was
desirous of talking with me about his affairs, and was
dissatisfied with this Queen, I invited him to dinner.
When we were alone, on my simply asking him how
he was getting on with his business in London, he
launched out into a long account of the whole
negotiation, which mainly consisted of two points,
namely, the succession of his mistress the Queen to
this crown, and the question of her marriage. . . .
When he arrived here and told this Queen that he
came on behalf of his mistress to offer her interven-
tion between her and the King of France, in
accordance with the desires which had been signified
here, she told him he was very welcome, and thanked
her cousin the Queen warmly for her good intentions,
and said that he could go to France, and she would
instruct her ambassador, Smith, to negotiate.
Lethington was not desirous of leaving here so
quickly, before learning what was going on in Parlia-
ment about his Queen's affairs, and what action the
Queen of England intended taking in them, and he
therefore answered that he would gladly do as she
commanded, but that for his own dignity and the
success of the negotiation, it was necessary first that
the wishes of Her Christian Majesty and her son
should be ascertained. Notwithstanding all their
argument against this he stood firm, and this Queen
was at last obliged to consent to his sending a
servant to ask leave in France for his going. When
this servant had departed, there came among other
troubles the news of the wounding and subsequently
the death of the Duke of Guise, which rendered the
negotiations of the Scottish Queen ridiculous and
contemptible. Lethington was so indignant at this
that he came to discuss his affairs with me, and finding
me disposed to lean to the interests of his Queen, he
had thus opened his mind as I have stated. When
we had arrived at the point where he was telling me
272 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
how perplexed and desperate he was I said that in
my opinion, there was no other remedy for the Queen
of Scotland but for her to marry a husband from this
Queen's hand, in which case she would be declared
her successor. He said there were two difficulties
in this course, namely, that the Queen his mistress
would never marry a Protestant, even if he were lord
of half the world, as he knew well, for he had
resorted even to the use of (threats ?) to get her to
change her resolve in this respect, but without success.
The second difficulty is that his mistress says she
will not take a husband, Catholic or Protestant, from
the hands of the Queen of England, even if by this
act alone she could be declared her successor, because
she knows that in the first place any husband she
would give her would be one of her subjects, whom
she would rather die than accept ; and in the second,
that after she had married beneath her, she would
have exactly the same trouble as now to press her
claims to the succession, as, without forces of her
own, she never could do it, whatever declarations
might be made, and whereas she now has the
adhesion of all the Catholics of the realm, and
of many who are not Catholics, perhaps she would
lose it all after she had made a sorry marriage.
He said therefore, that there was no hope of agree-
ment based on the submission to the Queen of Scot-
land to this Queen, and her acceptance of a husband
to her (Elizabeth's) liking, and this was the reason
why his mistress had decided, that in the event ot
no satisfactory arrangement being made here, he
should go to France and propose through her uncles
the marriage of the Christian King, although she
knew that in consequence of their near relationship
and disparity of age, it was an unsuitable match.
She was driven to this course, however, by necessity,
since not only English, but also even Frenchmen for
their own ends thwarted her by proposing, now the
Duke of Ferrara, now the Earl of Arran, and now
other things totally shameful and infamous. Treating
LOVE AND WAR 273
of this matter, he told me that the Duke had already
been firmly refused, and as for the Earl of Arran, the
Queen hated him so, that having heard that the
Queen of France, through this Ambassador Foix, had
given him some hope of the match, she wrote a letter
to the French Queen complaining bitterly that Foix
should have dealings in Scotland with any of her
subjects, or secret understandings with them here.
She says they have not yet dared to suggest to her a
husband less great and powerful than the one she has
lost.
I asked him what about the marriage with the
Archduke Charles. He said he had heard more
about it here than in Scotland, and so far as he
understood the thoughts and intentions of his mistress
such a match would not satisfy her, since the Arch-
duke has nothing in his favour but his relationship
with your Majesty, and this alone is not sufficient for
the aims the Queen and the Scots have in view. The
relationship of princes is of small importance in the
affairs of their dominions, and if your Majesty did not
promise great support and effectual aid to the Arch-
duke, he thought there was no chance of such a
match being acceptable. Talking over all these
matters, and especially of the suspicion with which
he repeated several times this Queen regards the
marriage of the Queen of Scotland, we came to speak
of our lord the Prince, of whom he told me these
people here are so mortally afraid that they have no
rest, and feel sure your Majesty will play them a fine
trick some day when they least expect it. I told him
that I had an idea also that this Queen was somewhat
frightened of such a marriage since the Queen of
Scots had become a widow, and to keep us in hand
they had offered great things respecting the reforma-
tion of religion, but that since the commencement of
the war in France, it appeared as if this Queen, forti-
fied as she was by the faction of the Prince of Conde
and the Chatillons, was not so alarmed, and I thought
also she might feel the more secure as the Scots were
E.M.S. T
274 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
of the same religion. He replied that I was mis-
taken, as they were more afraid now than ever before,
and that as for religion, this Queen cared as little for
one as for the other. He said their religion in Scot-
land was very different from the English, as here they
had removed the sacrament and names from the
Anglican Church without reforming the abuses and
irregularities, and that it was simply nonsense to
think that questions of religion were really at the
bottom of the present state of affairs. Returning to
the question of our lord the Prince, he said that this
Queen was in great fear of his marriage, and the
Queen of France the same, with very good reason,
as, if your Majesty listened to it, not only would you
give your son a wife of such excellent qualities as
those possessed by his Queen, who was in pru-
dence, chastity and beauty, equalled by few in the
world, but you also gave him a power which
approached very nearly to monarchy, adding to the
dominions already possessed by your Majesty two
entire islands, this and Ireland, the possession of
which by your Majesty would give no trouble what-
ever, having regard to the great attachment the
Catholics bear to this marriage, and to the union of
these crowns, which he well knew, and that his
mistress had no enemies here but the Protestants. . . .
What passed between us is, in substance, what I
have set forth, but much less diffusely, as we spoke
about nothing else for the whole four or five hours
we were together. As he slowly entered into the
matter I carefully kept him to it without showing any
certainty or eagerness, and praised the Archduke
every now and then, so as to display as much inclina-
tion and hope of one match as of the other without
preference for either. With regard to affairs here I
can only say that on all hands I am receiving con-
firmation of the correctness of what I wrote respecting
the attachment of the people of this country to the
idea of the marriage in question, and there are
persons who offer to serve your Majesty with 1,000
LOVE AND WAR 275
(men) for this ; and others promise other things no
less important. It is easily seen by the state of the
country that if God in His mercy deigns to relieve
them from these wars the remedy will be by means
of a union of the countries under a powerful Christian
prince, and there appears to be no other course open.
I say this in the name of all these good Christians
and servitors of your Majesty here, who speak of the
matter with such sorrow and vehemence that it seems
as if no obstacle could withstand so much earnestness
and determination. It is true that Cecil is playing
his game to give the crown to the Earl of Hertford,
as Lethington understands, but the adherents to such
a course will be weak in comparison to the Catholic
party who favour the Queen of Scotland, as some of
the heretics side with Huntingdon, and some have
no fixed plan, but will follow the strongest. The
Catholics, however, are all of one will, and really,
if your Majesty wishes, there appears to be no
impediment to prevent your Majesty from entertaining
what all here are talking of, and I approve.
Respecting the marriage of the King of France, I
wish to observe that I had early news of the design,
and as soon as Lethington arrived here I introduced
the subject, as if casually, to the (French) Ambassador,
who appeared not to attach much importance to it,
and thought that the Queen- Mother would not be
favourable to it, because they knew your Majesty
would never allow the French to obtain the succes-
sion to this throne, which was the only good thing
they could hope to get from the match. Lethington
gave me to understand the very reverse of this, and
said that Foix was very well disposed and that the
French had some design prejudicial to your Majesty's
interests. However that may be, and I believe one
just as much as the other, my own opinion is that
the French might try to insure themselves against
our lord the Prince by arranging a marriage with the
Queen of Scotland, which would last only until his
Highness were married elsewhere. There would be
T 2
276 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
plenty of ways to get out of it if they wished, or it
might be carried into effect if occasion served.
Ten days later Quadra sent his master word of Elizabeth's
offer to Mary of Lord Robert's hand in marriage, when she
added to what Lethington regarded as an insult by
suggesting his brother Warwick as a possible alternative.
She was probably no more sincere in this than was
Lethington — if we are to believe Kirkcaldy of Grange — in
his proposal for Mary's marriage to Don Carlos. In the
midst of a world of duplicity, indeed, it is impossible to say
who was really honest and straightforward. Apparently no
one. But the correspondence, if it proves nothing else,
shows the difficulty of knowing how far anyone's word
could be trusted in those days, as well as the danger of
dogmatizing on the subject at the present time. Quadra
would fain believe in Lethington's sincerity. He saw the
possibilities of such an alliance. Had Philip and Don Carlos
been other than they were, it is possible that Elizabeth
might have found herself deposed, and another Mary and
Spanish Consort firmly established on her throne. But
though Philip approved of the scheme, as will be found in
his letter of June 15, he spoiled whatever chance it may have
had by not striking while the iron was hot :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, March 28, 1563.
By letter of i8th instant and previous dates I have
advised the arrival here of Lethington, Secretary to
the Queen of Scotland, and his interview with me.
He has subsequently visited me, as I was unwell,
and he assures me, since the day he spoke with me,
six or seven of the peers have spoken to him
separately, and have declared to him their desire to
receive and serve the Queen of Scotland, and to
see her married to our lord the Prince. He says the
latter condition was urged by all with so much
persistence and earnestness that he is quite convinced
of the strong inclination towards the marriage held
LOVE AND WAR 277
by the people here. The French ambassador here
recently declared that the marriage of the said Queen
with the Archduke Charles was already a settled
thing, but I do not know what his object is in saying
so, whether it is true or (which is much more likely)
because he thinks it will benefit his negotiations for
peace. Lethington says that all the gentlemen that
have spoken to him have expressed very little
satisfaction at the talk of marriage with the Arch-
duke, and he thinks in Scotland it will be no better
received if it takes place. He has again repeated the
arguments which I set forth in my letter of the
1 8th instant aforementioned, with other fresh ones
which I need not here repeat. It occurs to me that
having seen so great a leaning to this marriage on
the part of the people here, his own desire for it has
increased, and this has led him to assure me very
emphatically of the small wish they have to join
hands with the French and their great eagerness to
establish their right to this country. He related to
me also the grievances they have against both
countries. He said that four or five days ago, when
he was discussing with this Queen the question of
peace with France, the conversation turned to the
Queen of Scotland and her marriage. The Queen
said that if his mistress would take her advice, and
wished to marry safely and happily, she would give
her a husband who would ensure both, and this was
Lord Robert, in whom nature has implanted so
many graces that if she wished to marry she would
prefer him to all the princes in the world, and many
more things of the same sort. Lethington says he
replied that this was a great proof of the love she
bore to his Queen, as she was willing to give her a thing
so dearly prized by herself, and he thought the
Queen, his mistress, even if she loved Lord Robert
as dearly as she (Elizabeth) did, would not marry
him, and so deprive her of all the joy and solace she
received from his companionship. After spending a
long time over these compliments he says the Queen
278 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
said to him she wished to God the Earl of Warwick
his brother had the grace and good looks of Lord
Robert, in which case each could have one. Lething-
ton says he could not reply for confusion, but she
nevertheless went on with the conversation, saying
that the Earl of Warwick was not ugly either, and
was not ungraceful, but his manner was rather
rough, and he was not so gentle as Lord Robert.
For the rest, however, he was so brave, so liberal
and magnanimous, that truly he was worthy of being
the husband of any great princess. Lethington was
anxious to escape from this colloquy by bringing on
the subject of the succession, which he knew would
shut her mouth directly, and therefore told her that
the Queen his mistress was very young yet, and
what this Queen might do for her was to marry
Lord Robert herself first and have children by him,
which was so important for the welfare of the
country, and then when it should please God to call
her to himself she could leave the Queen of Scots
heiress both to her kingdom and her husband. In
this way it would be impossible for Lord Robert to
fail to have children by one or other of them, who
would in time become Kings of these two countries,
and so turning it to a joke he put an end to the
conversation. Lethington was so upset by the talk
of the Earl of Warwick, whom I certainly thought
she would never dare to mention, that he would fain
have posted off that very hour, as he assures me he
would do now if he had not been charged with these
peace negotiations, for which he will probably have to
go to France. I think he is dealing straightforwardly,
with me, as he gives me many pledges and reveals
things very prejudicial to himself, although he gets
from me in return nothing but the usual uncertainty
and indecision.
The fact is doubtless that seeing so great a desire
in England for this marriage with the Prince and so
marked a repugnance to any other, even to that with
the Archduke, or other as nearly allied to your
LOVE AND WAR 279
Majesty, they are ready to do anything to obtain it.
Although their position with regard to religion is the
same as usual I still think they would do even more
in this respect than up to the present they have said.
I gather from his words that the Queen of Scotland
must be treated by the Queen-Mother with great
disregard, and he said clearly that a much closer
friendship than anybody thought existed between the
Queen-Mother and the Prince of Conde and the
Chatillons. He showed me the statement of a circum-
stance that had happened to his Queen, the most
extraordinary and unpleasant thing ever heard of.
It happened on the night that Lethington took leave of
her to come hither. He, Lord James, and two other
members of her Council were with her for several hours
in her private cabinet until after midnight. During
this time a little Frenchman called Chastelard, who
arrived some months ago from France, and who was
always joking among the ladies, took the oppor-
tunity of some of the attendants in the Queen's
chamber having gone to sleep to slip underneath the
bed. When Lethington and the others had gone,
two grooms of the chamber entered, and when the
chamber was cleared looked as usual behind the
tapestry and the bed, and came across the hidden
Frenchman. Seeing himself discovered, he tried
hard to pass it all off as a joke, and said he had
fallen asleep there, because they would not let him
sleep anywhere else. He wanted them to let him go
with this, but the grooms called the mistress of the
robes and told her, and she ordered the captain of the
guard to be summoned, and charged him to keep the
man in safe custody, saying however nothing to the
Queen, so as not to spoil her night's rest. She was
informed the next morning and the man was brought
before the Council and examined. He wished still to
turn the thing into a joke, but the Queen ordered that
he should be punished in any case, if not for his
villainy then for his carelessness, and that the truth
of the matter should be discovered, as it could not
28o ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
have been negligence. Finding himself in a fix the
man said that he had been sent from France by
persons of distinguished position, with sufficient
means and apparel in order that he should get a
footing in the Court and household of the Queen ol
Scotland, and try to make himself so familiar with
her and her ladies that he could seize an opportunity
of obtaining some appearance of proof sufficient to
sully the honour of the Queen. He was instructed
after attempting so great a crime as this to escape at
once, and he should be greatly esteemed and largely
rewarded, and he therefore intended to remain that
night underneath the bed, and go out in the morning,
so that he could escape after being seen, which was
what he desired. After this confession had been
made and confirmed before all the people they cut off
the man's head.
The persons who sent him on this treacherous
errand were, according to Lethington, several, but she
who gave the principal instructions was Madame de
Curosot.1 The Queen writes to Lethington that the
other names are such that they cannot be entrusted
to letters, but I do not know who it is that he sus-
pects, as he keeps it very close from me. This male-
factor came here last November with a German
captain nominally as his servant, and both were
followers of Monsieur Damville. When he passed
through here he told a friend of his, by means of
whom I will try to find out something, that he was
going to Scotland to see his la iy love. This Queen
had received news of the affair before Lethington's
arrival here by means of a special messenger, who
travelled with great speed, and Lethington found it
was very much talked about, which greatly grieved
him until he received advice of what was being done.
He seems now somewhat tranquillised about the
affair itself, but complains bitterly of the people
1 Curosot, writes Andrew Lang, is the Spanish cipher name for
Chatillon, and the wife of the Admiral Coligny is intended, or the
real name is de Cursol or Crusolles, later Duchesse d'Uzes.
LOVE AND WAR 281
who sent the man on his errand. He says that all
Scotland is offended at it, and that it has originated
in some of the most powerful people in France.
I hear that it has been proposed to the Lords in
Parliament to reduce the succession to the crown to
four lines or families in the kingdom, leaving to the
Queen the nomination of the one that has to succeed
her out of these four. It is a trick of Cecil's so that
it shall fall where he wishes, and the naming of four
houses will close the mouths of many who will con-
tent themselves with that honour, although they know
they will be excluded from the succession itself. The
Queen will obtain what she has been contemplating for
some time, namely the reduction of the succession to her
testamentary disposition. I expect they will exclude
women born and to be born in order to make sure of
the Queen of Scotland, whose chance in the matter has
been quite spoilt by the death of the Duke of Guise.
Lethington leaves for France in three days quite
undeceived about affairs here, although he will con-
tinue the peace negotiations. He says he is osten-
sibly going to look after the Queen's property in
France, but I am not without suspicion that he will
treat of the marriage with his Queen with the King
of France, not getting any satisfactory answer here
about our lord the Prince.
Lethington, as Quadra told his master, was not alone in
weighing the advantages of the Spanish match for Mary.
"A well-known Catholic M. P." assured him that some of the
English nobles would willingly set aside all the other
claimants to the throne " and give the kingdom to the
person to whom it rightly belongs, namely the Queen of
Scotland, if your Majesty would consent to her marriage
with our lord the Prince, in which they say all would gladly
concur, and receive him with open arms as King, and so
unite these two crowns, and become subjects of a great
sovereign under whom they could live in peace, and do away
with these religious questions. He has named up to the
present five persons of position who he says have sent to
282 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
him, and very shortly this opinion will be held by many
more. He says if I like he will go himself to Scotland on a
favourable opportunity to treat with that Queen for the con-
clusion of this business, which he looks upon as done so far
as regards the people here." l
Possibly the M.P. was merely one of Cecil's agents, but
Quadra was the more convinced of his sincerity because he
could not see any other remedy for the kingdom than the one
proposed. " There is not a single one of these pretenders
who is strong enough to withstand the others and master
the whole of them, and consequently they cannot fail to
come to blows over it, and run the risk of falling a prey to
the King of Sweden or anybody else who invades the country
with some force and money." Elizabeth herself was in an
extremely difficult position. She could not name the Queen
of Scots as her successor, fearing that to do so would merely
be to sign her own death-warrant. Her grim metaphor to
Lethington on the subject was that to agree to his proposal
would be "simply to prepare her own winding sheet and
make her grave ready." She probably realised as well as
did the Spanish Ambassador, that to choose anyone else
would be to sow the seed of civil war. So she found her only
safety in procrastination. When the Lords went to her after
the Commons' failure, and begged her to settle the question,
she did not disguise her annoyance. " She told them," wrote
Quadra to Philip, " that the marks they saw on her face were
not wrinkles, but pits of small-pox, and that although she
might be old God could send her children as He did to
Saint Elizabeth, and they (the Lords) had better consider
well what they were asking, as, if she declared a successor, it
would cost much blood to England."2
The minds of everyone were disturbed by all this un-
certainty. " How wretched are we," wrote Dr. Jewel to
Peter Martyr, " who cannot tell under what sovereign we
are to live ! God will, I trust, long preserve Elizabeth to
us in life and safety, and that will satisfy us." 3 To be born
with a strain of royal blood, however remote, where the
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 297.
2 Ibid., p. 296.
3 " Zurich Letters." First Series.
LOVE AND WAR 283
reigning Queen was the last of her race in the direct line,
and unwilling to ensure the succession by the usual means
of matrimony, was a privilege which more than one possible
claimant to the crown would willingly have forfeited.
Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon, who, as stated
on p. 142, had distant claims to the throne as a descendant
of the Dukes of Buckingham and York, was fearful at this
time of suffering for the zeal of those who would have
appointed him Elizabeth's successor :
THE EARL OF HUNTINGDON TO THE EARL OF
LEICESTER.
[" Hardwicke State Papers.''^
April, 1563.
My honourable good Lord,
I am sorry that my present disease is such as there
are left me but these two remedies, either to swallow
up those bitter pills lately received, or to make you
a partner of my griefs, thereby something to ease a
wounded heart. At my wife's last being at Court,
to do her duty as became her, it pleased her Majesty
to give her a privy nip, especially concerning myself,
whereby I perceive she hath some jealous conceit of
me, and, as I can imagine, of late digested. How
far I have been always from conceiting any greatness
of myself, nay how ready I have been always to shun
applause, both by my continual low sail, and my
carriage, I do assure myself, is best known to your
Lordship, and the rest of my nearest friends ; if not,
mine own conscience shall best clear me from any such
folly. Alas, what could I hope to effect, in the greatest
hopes I might imagine to have in the obtaining the
least likelihood of that height ? Will a whole
commonwealth deprive themselves of so many
blessings presently enjoyed, for a future hope un-
certain, in favour of one inferior to many others,
both in degree, and any princely quality ? Will
they forsake a Prince, both for excellent qualities,
and rare virtues of nature, and of great hopes of an
284 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
inestimable blessing by her princely issue, in reason
of her youth, for a poor subject in years, and without
any great hope of issue ? No, no, I cannot be per-
suaded they would, if I should be so foolishly wicked
to desire it, or that my mind were so ambitiously
inclined. I hope her Majesty will be persuaded ot
better things in me, and cast this conceit behind her;
and that a foolish book, foolishly written, shall not
be able to possess her princely inclination with so
bad a conceit of her faithful servant, who desires not
to live but to see her happy. What grief it hath
congealed within my poor heart (but ever true) let
your Lordship judge, whose Prince's favour was
always more dear unto me than all other worldly
facilities whatsoever. This I am bold to make known
to your Lordship, humbly desiring the same when
you see your opportunity to frame a new heart in
her Majesty's princely breast, whose power I know
is not little in effecting of far greater matters than
this, for never shall there be a truer heart in any
subject than I will carry to her Majesty so long as
I breathe. And so I rest
Your poor Servant and Brother,
H. HUNTINGDON.
The situation was not improved for Elizabeth by the
dramatic conclusion of the first war between the Catholics
and the Huguenots in France. Peace having been signed,
Warwick was requested by both sides to restore Havre
to France, and to return with his unappreciated army
to England. The Prince of Conde himself in his own
name and that of the Queen-Mother offered to renew the
clause in the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis for the restora-
tion of Calais to England in 1567, and to repay Elizabeth
the money which she had lent him for the recent campaign.
Elizabeth, however, was furious with the " false Prince of
CondeV' as she called him, and declined to withdraw from
Havre without the immediate restoration of Calais, remind-
ing him of the terms of the agreement upon which she had
sent to his assistance :
LOVE AND WAR 285
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, May g, 1563.
Briquemault, the Prince of Conde's envoy, came
here for the purpose I have mentioned, which was
really only compliment to the Queen in recognition
of the aid she had given, and a desire to make peace
between her and the King of France, but without the
surrender of Calais. She answered him with great
bitterness, as I have said, and used extremely hard
and insulting words towards the Prince ; the formal
reply given to Briquemart being that the King had
better send M. Damville, or some other person with
whom the Queen could treat, as she did not choose to
negotiate with a messenger from the Prince of Conde.
During Briquemault's stay here the King of France
has sent some troops to Honfleur and Havre de
Grace, and on the last day of April wrote a very
humble letter to this Queen saying that as her
occupation of the place had been, as she said, only
for his benefit, Jhe begged her now to be pleased to
give it up, and remain a good friend to him in
accordance with the treaty of Cateau Cambresis,
and at the same time he sent a letter to his ambas-
sador, instructing him to say that if the place were
not surrendered he should be obliged to send an army
against it. Last Thursday the ambassador gave his
letter to the Queen, but no answer was vouchsafed
him, except that she would consider the matter, and
give her reply later. She spoke very violently of the
Prince of Conde, calling him inconstant, lying and
worthless (or naughty as they say here). The
ambassador asked yesterday for the reply, and Cecil
sent word that the Queen would send it through her
own ambassador in France. The Ambassador tried
hard to obtain another audience, in virtue of the
credence he had handed her, and at last obtained
one, when he asked her either to surrender Havre
de Grace, or tell him her reasons for keeping it, and
286 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
if she thought of imposing conditions for its sur-
render, he begged her to tell him what they were.
In order not to lose time he said that if these included
the restitution of Calais before the time agreed upon,
he might say at once that it would not be granted.
The Ambassador says the Queen replied at great
length and very confusedly, not refusing to surrender
the place or mentioning any other conditions except
Calais.
Six days later the Venetian Ambassador in Paris wrote
that war had been proclaimed there against England, and
artillery and ammunition sent in the direction of Havre.
" The Queen of England," he added, " according to the reply
lately received from the gentleman who was sent to her about
this business, still insists upon having the 200,000 francs
disbursed for that place, and the interest due subsequently,
and also security for the restitution of Calais in due season."1
Huguenots and Catholics now combined to expel their ancient
enemy from Havre, where Warwick awaited the siege with
an army sadly reduced in numbers by the plague, as well
as by the French. But for the disease the defence might
have held out, but the original garrison died like flies, and
reinforcements by the thousand arrived only to add to this
frightful mortality. While Warwick was thus fighting
against hopeless odds, and prepared to die sword in hand
with the remnants of his army, Elizabeth at home declined
to acknowledge defeat, or to discuss Cond6's terms of peace.
She was negotiating with Lethington at the same time and
warning him against any marriage of which she did not
personally approve for Mary. Philip's reply to Quadra's
news of the Don Carlos scheme was not calculated to help
matters in that direction :
PHILIP II. TO BISHOP QUADRA.
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
MADRID, June 15, 1563.
I have noted the long discussion you had with
Lethington, and what he said to you respecting the
1 Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII., p. 356.
LOVE AND WAR 287
marriage of the Queen of Scotland, his mistress, with
the Prince, my son, and also of the manner in which
you answered him and bore yourself towards him. I
highly approve of your conduct in the matter, which
was marked with great prudence, and seeing that the
bringing about of this marriage may perhaps be the
beginning of a reformation in religious matters in
England, I have decided to entertain the negotiation.
You will see that it is carried on in the same way
that it has been commenced, if you consider that safe
and secret, telling them to inform you of all the
engagements and understandings they have in
England, and you, knowing how valuable such
knowledge may be to me, will carefully advise me
of everything, together with your own opinion upon
it. You will inform me step by step of all that
happens in the matter, but without settling anything,
except to find out the particulars referred to above,
until I send you word what I desire shall be done.
You may, however, assure them that my intentions
are such as I mention in this letter, but you must
urge them, above all, to use the greatest secrecy in
the business, and all negotiations connected with it,
as all the benefit to be derived from the affair
depends absolutely upon nothing being heard of it
until it is an accomplished fact. If it becomes
known that such negotiations are being carried on,
and that I am concerned in them, the French will be
greatly alarmed, and will strenuously endeavour by
some means or another to frustrate them. Even if
they cannot do that they will try their hardest to
counteract any profitable result that might arise,
understanding that it will be entirely to their detri-
ment. As for the Queen of England and her
heretics, they are so deeply interested that you may
easily judge what they would do if they heard of it,
and, therefore, as I say, it is absolutely necessary
that you should keep secret, and urge secrecy on the
persons with whom you treat, so that they may make
the Queen their mistress also capable of it. The
288 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Emperor, depending upon the representations made
to him by Cardinal Lorraine, looks upon the match
with the Archduke Charles as certain. I send you
attached an account of Cardinal Lorraine's informa-
tion to the Emperor. The latter does not know the
feeling of the Queen and her ministers about it, as
you have been able to inform me, but if I saw any
appearance of the Archduke's match being carried
through, and of the possibility of getting from it the
same advantages as at present appear derivable from
the marriage with my son, I would embrace and
promote it to the full extent of my power in preference
to the latter, for the affection I bear to the Emperor
my uncle and his sons.
What has moved me to take this business up and
not to wait until the Emperor has been undeceived
about it, has been the information you send me
respecting the objections entertained by the Queen
and her ministers to the match with the Archduke,
and the small benefit they think they will derive from
it ; but, above all, your advice that they were about
to enter into negotiations for the marriage of their
Queen with the King of France. I will bear in mind
the trouble and anxiety I underwent from King
Francis when he was married to this Queen, and I
am sure that if he had lived we could not have
avoided plunging into war ere this on the ground of
my protection of the Queen of England, whose
country he would have invaded as he intended to do.
To be at war on account of other people's affairs is a
state of things which, you will agree with me, is to
be avoided and is not at all to my liking, but in this
case, seeing whom I should be obliging, it would be
doubly disagreeable. With regard to the adherents
the Scots will have in England, and the increasing
of their number if necessary, you will not interfere in
any way further than you have done hitherto, but let
them do it themselves, and gain what friends and
sympathy they can for their opinions amongst the
Catholics, and those upon whom they depend. I say
LOVE AND WAR 289
this because, if anything should be discovered, they
should be the persons to be blamed, and no one in
connexion with us.
I note your remarks concerning the hope that the
Catholics and good men in England place in me, and
I certainly desire their welfare and amelioration with
all my heart. You may assure them thus much, and
encourage and console them through your usual
channels, but do not for the world show yourself in
the matter, as you know what the result might be.
But Lethington, in Quadra's opinion, as he states in his
next letter, was now convinced of the futility of marrying
Mary against Elizabeth's wishes :
BISHOP QUADRA TO PHILIP II.
Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, VoL I.]
LONDON, June 26, 1562.
Lethington left here on the 2Oth instant. I spoke
a considerable time with him as he was starting, and
he said that the Queen of England had commanded
him to tell his mistress that she had heard of negotia-
tions having been commenced for her marriage with
our lord the Prince, or with the Archduke Charles,
and she openly told her and protested that if she
married either of them, or any member of the House
of Austria, she could not avoid being her enemy, and
she consequently charged her to consider well what
step she took in such matter. At the same time, if
she married a person to the Queen's satisfaction, she
would not fail to be a good friend and sister to her
and make her her heir, instead of being as she other-
wise would be, her mortal enemy. Lethington had
told the same story to the ambassador of France,
adding also that this Queen objected to the marriage
of the Queen of Scotland with the French King. I
asked Lethington whom he thought the Queen wished
her to marry, and he said he imagined it was some
private gentleman, and as a last resort, she would
agree to the King of Denmark or another Protestant
E.M.S. u
2go ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Prince, or even with the Duke of Ferrara, or a person
of similar position in France. I also asked him if he
thought his mistress would consent to do as the
Queen wished, to which he answered that he feared
not, although if she desired to please her subjects and
succeed in her affairs she ought to do so. He again
repeated that he did not know how they could put up
with the Archduke Charles in Scotland, as he is so
poor, and they had no money to help him.
In short it seemed to me, unless he is a very good
actor, that he (Lethington) was going back confirmed
in his determination to persuade his mistress to marry
a husband chosen for her by this Queen, or at least
one that was not objectionable to her, since on this
condition he says, she has promised her the succes-
sion. I am quite sure they will not keep this promise
any better than the previous promises they have
made. Many people think that if the Queen of Scot-
land does marry a person unacceptable to this Queen,
the latter will declare as her successor the son of
Lady Margaret, whom she now keeps in the palace,
and shows such favour to as to make this appear
probable. I am also informed, and believe it, that if
the Queen of Scotland does not marry our lord the
Prince, even though she take the Archduke, many of
her people will incline rather to Lady Margaret's son
than to the Archduke, because if they cannot come
into the hands of your Majesty they would rather
have an Englishman than a poor foreigner.
That was nearly the last letter that the wily but faithful
Quadra was to write, for death was shortly to bring him
release from a post which had grown more and more irksome
and dangerous every year since the Queen's accession. Only
three months before he had begged his master's permission
to retire :
Public affairs here and my own private troubles and
necessities (he wrote) force me to beg your Majesty
to be pleased to allow me to leave this island. I am
of but little use here, and my residence is so costly
LOVE AND WAR 291
and onerous that, apart from my pecuniary estate, in
which I am totally ruined, I am suffering much in
health and all else. ... I can truly say that I desire
life for no other purpose than to serve your Majesty,
as is my duty, but this residence of so many years
here without any other means than those furnished
for my support by your Majesty's orders, has become
quite intolerable, and I lack every resource and
expedient for carrying on any longer. I supplicate
your Majesty to be pleased to convince yourself of this
and order enquiry to be made, when it will be proved
that for the many years I have served I have been
spending all the little property I had without ever
receiving a single favour, which I think arises from
the fact that I have always served in foreign parts,
and because I have been more diligent in doing my
duty worthily than in soliciting and importuning. If
I importune now I do so forced by my need, my trouble,
and my afflictions, which grieve me most because they
hinder me from serving your Majesty as I could wish.1
Philip, however, valued his services too highly to release
him at such a critical juncture in Anglo- Scottish affairs. He
drove him to despair also by the half-hearted way in which
he proposed to deal with the suggested marriage between
Mary Stuart and Don Carlos. Quadra had some reason to
believe that Lethington's dream of that alliance had dissolved
through the lack of an appropriate response, and that the
English Catholics, whose chief hopes were not centred in
the Queen of Scots, would do nothing in face of such leaden
methods as Philip suggested. " In view of this grave state
of things," wrote Quadra to the Duke of Alba on July 17,
" I think the instructions his Majesty has given me are
inadequate and not sufficiently decided, not because the
greatness of the crisis does not call for all due deliberation,
but because I think the remedy is a weak one for so dangerous
a malady. When they see that instead of giving them a firm
reply we come to them only with halting proposals, I do not
know what they will think of it."2 Yet the state of England,
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 319 — 20.
2 Ibid.
U 2
292 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
as seen through his prejudiced eyes, and as, apparently, it
was pictured to him by the firm adherents of the old Faith —
who gave him lists of Catholics and others ready to raise
troops for Mary's service when the hour was struck for
Elizabeth's removal — convinced him that the time was ripe
for revolt. The marvel was, he told Philip after some of the
Catholic noblemen had been pouring out their grievances to
him, that disturbances had not already broken out, " con-
sidering the grave and numerous causes of discontent that
exist. The only way to account for it is that the force of
tradition, and lack of spirit amongst the principal people,
make them obedient to the name of the monarch apart from
the power or substance, which certainly this Queen does not
possess, being as she is so unpopular and despised, without
troops, without money, and without harmony, at enmity
with all the world." x
So that when presently laid low by sickness — probably by
the plague which raged fiercely in London that summer —
and the Bishop realised that his end was near, he grieved
most of all that he should drop from his work just when he
hoped to succeed. His last words, as one of his colleagues
informed the King, were : " I can do no more." Quadra was
reviled enough by Englishmen in his lifetime — " crafty old
fox " Bishop Jewel called him — and has not been spared by
modern historians. Let me at least register a tribute of
respect for a man who, though not without his faults, did
his best, according to his day and generation, and filled a
difficult post faithfully to the bitter end.
Elizabeth's unhappy venture in France was now reaching
its dramatic close at Havre, where the Earl of Warwick —
with the permission at length received from Elizabeth to
surrender at the last extremity — capitulated on July 28 under
conditions which gave his troops time to deliver up the town
and embark with all their possessions for England. Warwick
himself was ill and wounded in the leg — by a poisoned bullet
fired while he was negotiating terms from the ramparts — and
his heroic army reduced to a mere handful. Cecil, inform-
ing Archbishop Parker on August I that Warwick had been
given authority to deliver up the town on the conditions
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 321.
LOVE AND WAR 293
agreed upon, added : " This necessity the plague brought,
and was inevitable."1 The end of the siege is strikingly
depicted by the Venetian Ambassador at the Court of
France, who left Charles IX. and the Queen-Mother at
Rouen to witness the closing scenes :
MARC' ANTONIO BARBARO TO THE SIGNORY.
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.]
UNDER HAVRE DE GRACE, July 29, 1563.
Yesterday, on my arrival at the camp, the troops
within Havre de Grace were parleying with the
Constable to surrender the town, and come to an
agreement to depart thence safe with their baggage. So
they have obtained four days' time to cross the sea, and
in the meanwhile they have surrendered the fort with
a large tower of the city. On my arrival here there
was a truce for the convention, so I was able con-
veniently to inspect the outer walls, the trenches, and
what had been done thereabouts. The garrison
within were in fact reduced to a sorry plight, for the
besiegers were about to storm the place, as they had
already battered effectually and dismantled a bulwark
and several towers of the port, and filled up the whole
moat, so that with but a little more work they would
have opened the road for themselves securely with
a spade.
The besiegers had battered so furiously that I
know not what fortress could have withstood them ;
and they had moreover a battery of forty cannon, so
that whereas at first they used only to fire twenty or
thirty shots each day, they now discharged more
than one hundred and twenty, so that it is almost
incredible to conceive the actual force which was
poured forth from the batteries, and notwithstanding
that the besieged have used their powerful artillery
and harquebuses, and killed more than one thousand
of the besiegers, the latter are so confident that they
make light of their losses.
1 Parker Correspondence.
294 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
This capture, according to military opinions, has
been one of the greatest achieved for many years
past, both on account of the nature of the fortress,
considered to be very strong, as well as for the
service, reputation, and advantage of the Crown.
The locality is surrounded for the distance of one
mile by a marsh, and by the waters of the sea,
which are cut by inaccessible canals. There is a
strand of sand on the seaside only, which may be
about thirty paces distant from the wall. The
besiegers passed along the shore somewhat concealed
by the sand and gravel cast up by the sea, and
established themselves and their artillery between
this strand and the sea, and opened fire. The
besiegers were placed below the high-water mark,
and if the tide had overflowed the artillery, they must
have retired with the loss of it. Your Serenity may
now imagine the joy felt by the Queen at the result
of this undertaking, which is so beneficial to the
kingdom and which has come to pass solely by her
will and contrary to the opinion of all the chief
ministers. This event has deprived those of the new
religion of all heart, and it is hoped that the affairs
of the Catholics will henceforth, God willing, proceed
in better form, and indeed the Catholics themselves
seem in high spirits. The King and Queen are to
come this morning to the camp, and I intend to go
immediately to their Majesties, to congratulate them
on so great a victory, and I shall then think of
departing hence, because all these parts are infected
with plague ; nor can one dwell otherwise than in
tents in the open country with such inconveniences
as usually follow armies.
Lord Warwick is in Havre de Grace wounded by a
harquebus shot in the leg ; he is the brother of the
Lord Robert [Dudley].
The belated fleet under Lord Edward Clinton hove in
sight too late to save the situation. The terms of the
agreement had already begun to take effect, and Warwick
LOVE AND WAR 295
himself, in miserable plight, had embarked in readiness to
make the passage to Portsmouth. Clinton was doubtless
disgusted at finding himself too late, but the English
account of his behaviour is very different from that
supplied by the Venetian Ambassador in his next letter :
MARC' ANTONIO BARBARO TO THE SIGNORY.
[Venetian Calendar, Vol. VII.]
ROUEN, August 6, 1563.
On the 28th ultimo the English in Havre de Grace
agreed to surrender the place to the King, and to
embark in four days ; then on the 3oth July the
Admiral of England [Lord Admiral Clinton] appeared
in sight of that place, with thirty ships, and five
galliots to succour it, not knowing that the capitula-
tion had been already made. The King's artillery
was then directed towards the sea, to prevent the
Admiral from doing what he intended, and the
Admiral became aware he had arrived too late,
because the agreement was in part effected, and
many of the English garrison had embarked ; the
King being master of the fort and harbour. So
the Admiral was given to understand by his most
Christian Majesty, that if he had anything to say,
he might land freely, when he would be welcomed
and well received ; but he replied that he had no
other commission but to succour Havre de Grace ;
and that those within having shown themselves more
solicitous to surrender than became them, he would
not say more, and thus he set sail the same evening
with the fleet, nor is it known in what direction he
has gone. The English still left then departed, and
the King's army entered on Sunday the ist of August,
some French infantry being left there as a garrison ;
and the Constable will remain for four or six days to
give orders to repair the fortress and for other
necessary purposes. The King has retired some
leagues from the camp on account of the plague.
What happened on Clinton's arrival was related by the
296 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Admiral himself to Cecil, in a letter describing how, the
weather having changed, he had arrived at Havre to find
that all was over, and that Warwick himself was on board a
transport ready to sail.
The Queen- Mother had sent M. de Lignerolles on board
the Admiral's ship with an invitation to dine with her. He
excused himself on the plea that he could not leave his men ;
but he said to Lignerolles " that the plague of deadly infec-
tion had done more for them than that which all the force of
France could never have done." l Before returning to Ports-
mouth, too, he left ships at Havre to bring off the rest of the
garrison. It was from Havre that England caught the
plague which now spread its evil shadow over every part of the
country. London was the chief sufferer, Camden stating
that out of that city alone " there were carried forth to bury-
ing about 21,530 corpses." Like most visitations of the kind
it was regarded as a punishment from God :
JOHN ABEL TO HENRY BULLINGER.
["Zurich Letters." Second Series.]
LONDON, August 24, 1563.
Our Lord God is very angry with us for our
ingratitude ; for His holy word is daily preached here
among us, and we have not loved norfollowed thesame,
nor commended it by our lives : wherefore He has
this last year sent a great dearth among us, and now
He has sent such a plague and pestilence that in the
city which our English took last year in Normandy,
some thousands have died so wonderfully by reason of
the plague, that our people have quitted the said town,
and are returned from thence with all their goods and
artillery and arms, &c., by which means the plague
is so rife in London, that there are dying by the
pestilence five or six hundred a week : and there is
reason to fear that if our Lord should not have com-
passion upon us, it will become yet more prevalent,
for it has only just begun. God give us His grace
and holy Spirit that we may amend our lives, that His
1 Froude.
LOVE AND WAR 297
holy name may be praised and magnified thereby ;
and then will He take away this plague. His holy
will be done from henceforth and for evermore. Amen.
The cloud was not without its silver lining for those
prisoners in the Tower whose lives were considered worth
saving. Lady Catherine Grey and Lord Hertford were both
removed from London and placed, the one with her uncle,
Lord John Grey of Pyrgo, and the other with his mother,
Anne, Duchess of Somerset. Earlier in the year the unlucky
lovers, by the birth of another child to Lady Catherine, dis-
closed the fact that they had found means of further inter-
course in the Tower. This, as was to be expected, greatly
added to the Queen's vexation. Hertford was fined fifteen
thousand pounds for what was regarded as his triple crime —
five thousand for seducing a maiden of the blood-royal ; five
thousand for breaking his prison ; and five thousand for
repeating his vicious act. Lord John Grey had begged Cecil,
to whom he was related by marriage, to remember his niece's
" miserable and comfortless state " and do what he could to
relieve her. " In faith," he wrote, " I would I were the
Queen's confessor this Lent, that I might join her in penance
to forgive and forget ; or otherwise able to step into the pulpit,
to tell her Highness, that God will not forgive her, unless she
freely forgive all the world." *
It was only the plague, however, which induced Elizabeth
to relax her severity later in the year. The Council made it
plain to Lord John Grey that his niece was still to be
regarded as a prisoner :
Her Majesty's pleasure is that the said lady shall
remain with him and his wife as in custody during Her
Majesty's pleasure ; nor is she to have conference
with any person not being of his Lordship's house-
hold without their knowledge ; which Her Majesty
meaneth her to understand and observe as some
part of her punishment, and therein Her Majesty
meaneth to try her disposition towards obedience.
Of their own part, as they wish that she should not
1 Ellis's "Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.
298 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
long lack Her Majesty's favour, but recover it by all
good means, they heartily pray his Lordship to see
that her demeanour in his Lordship's house is the
same as if she were in the Tower until she may attain
more favour of Her Majesty, for it is true that Her
Majesty meant no more by this liberty than to remove
her from the danger of the plague, and so they pray
his Lordship to let her plainly understand.1
Lord John Grey expressed his gratitude to Cecil in the
following letter :
LORD JOHN GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Ellis's "Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.]
PYRGO, August 29, 1563.
Good cousin Cecil, what cause all we have to think
ourselves bounden and beholden unto you, the lively
fact of your great friendship in the delivery of my
niece to my custody are sufficient pledges and tokens
for our bondage unto you during our lives. And
although I can justly lament the cause of her
imprisonment, yet can I not lament thus far forth
her being there, because I see it hath been the only
means whereby she hath seen herself, known God,
and her duty to the Queen ; which when it shall
further please the Queen's Majesty to make trial of,
I doubt not but my saying, and her doings, shall
accord ; in which meantime I shall, according to my
Lord Robert's letter, and yours, directed unto me,
see all things observed accordingly. Assure yourself
(cousin Cecil) she is a penitent and sorrowful woman
for the Queen's displeasure, and most humbly and
heartily desires you to finish what your friendship
begun, for the obtaining of the Queen's favour in the
full remission of her fault. This with my wife's
hearty commendations and mine to you and my good
lady (our cousin) your wife, I bid you most heartily
farewell.
By your loving Cousin, and assured poor friend
during life, JOHN GREY.
' Hatfield MSS., L, p. 280.
LOVE AND WAR 299
Lady Catherine's hopes were cruelly raised by her removal
from the Tower. No words are needed to add to the pathos of
the three ensuing documents — her letter to Cecil shortly after
arriving at Pyrgo, her later petition to the Queen, and one
of many letters from Lord John Grey himself on her woeful
state of mind and body :
LADY CATHERINE GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Ellis's " Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.]
PYRGO, September 3, 1563.
Good cousin Cecil : after my very hearty commen-
dations to my good cousin your wife and you, with
like thanks for your great friendship showed me in
this my lord's delivery and mine, with the obtaining
of the Queen's Majesty's most gracious favour thus
farforth extended towards us, I cannot but acknow-
ledge myself bounden and beholding unto you there-
fore ; and as I am sure you doubt not of mine own
dear lord's good will for the requital thereof to the
uttermost of his power, so I beseech you, good cousin
Cecil, make the like account of me during life to the
uttermost of my power ; beseeching your further
friendship for the obtaining of the Queen's Majesty's
most gracious pardon and favour towards me, which
with upstretched hands and downbent knees, from
the bottom of my heart, most humbly I crave. Thus
resting in prayer for the Queen's Majesty's long
reign over us, the forgiveness of mine offence, the
short enjoying of my own dear lord and husband,
with assured hope, through God's grace, and your
good help, and my Lord Robert, for the enjoying ot
the Queen's Highness's favour in that behalf, I bid
now, my own good cousin, most heartily farewell.
Your assured friend and cousin to my small power,
CATHERINE HERTFORD.
LORD JOHN GREY TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Ellis's "Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.]
PYRGO, September 20, 1563.
My good cousin Cecil, the only desire and care
that my lady hath of the Queen's Majesty's favour
300 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
enforceth these few lines, as nature bindeth me to
put you in remembrance of your offered friendship
and great good will, already showed, to the full
perfecting of the Queen's Majesty's favour in my
niece. I assure you cousin Cecil (as I have written
unto my Lord Robert) the thought and care she
taketh for the want of her Highness's favour, pines
her away : before God I speak it, if it come not the
sooner she will not long live thus ; she eateth not
above six morsels in the meal. If I say unto her,
" Good madam, eat somewhat to comfort yourself,"
she falls aweeping and goeth up to her chamber ;
if I ask her what the cause is she useth herself in
that sort, she answers me, " Alas, Uncle, what a life
is this to me, thus to live in the Queen's displeasure ;
but for my lord, and my children, I would to God
I were buried." Good cousin Cecil, as time places,
and occasion may serve, ease her of this woeful grief
and sorrow, and rid me of this life, which I assure
you grieveth me even at the heart's roots. Thus
beseeching God in this His visitation, to preserve us
with His stretched-out arm, and send us, merely to
meet, I salute you and my lady with my wife's most
hearty commendations and mine.
By your loving cousin and assured poor friend
during my life,
JOHN GREY.
LADY CATHERINE'S PETITION TO THE QUEEN.
[Ellis's " Original Letters." Second Series, Vol. II.]
PYRGO, November 6, 1563.
I dare not presume most gracious Sovereign, to
crave pardon for my disobedient and rash matching
of myself, without your Highness's consent ; I only
most humbly sue unto your Highness to continue
your merciful nature toward me. I acknowledge
myself a most unworthy creature to feel so much of
your gracious favour as I have done. My justfelt
misery and continual grief doth teach me daily, more
LOVE AND WAR 301
and more, the greatness of my fault, and your princely
pity increaseth my sorrow, that have so forgotten my
duty towards your Majesty. This is my great torment
of mind. May it therefore please your excellent
Majesty to license me to be a most lowly suitor unto
your Highness to extend toward my miserable state
your Majesty's further favour and accustomed mercy,
which upon my knees in all humble wise I crave,
with my daily prayers to God, long to continue and
preserve your Majesty's Reign over us.
Your Majesty's most humble bounden and obedient
subject.
But Elizabeth was rarely, if ever, moved to tenderness,
and, as will shortly be seen, was not encouraged to mercy
by Lord Grey's share in John Hales' book on the succession
question, published about this time (see p. 308). When
danger from the plague was over we find both husband and
wife back again at the Tower, though, as before, in separate
lodgings, and death alone was able to give Catherine her
freedom. The only changes allowed her were for the benefit
of her health, when she would occasionally be removed to
Cockfield Hall, the country seat of Sir Owen Hopton,
Lieutenant of the Tower. It was at this place that she
died, on January 27, 1568. Her death led to her husband's
release from the Tower later in the same year, though he
remained for some time in easy custody in various country
houses. Meantime, while the plague lasted in London, the
Queen withdrew her Court to Windsor, where she found
relief from the cares of State by enjoying great sport
in the forest, as Dudley informed Archbishop Parker, in
sending him "a fat stag killed with her own hand."1
Perhaps this was sent because of a sly remark in one of
the Archbishop's letters earlier in the year, pointing out
that Queen Anne Boleyn used to send him bucks from her
park at Canterbury. " Marry," he added, " I doubt in these
days whether bishops or ministers may be thought worthy
to eat venison ; I will hold me to my beef, and make merry
therewith, and pray for all my benefactors."2
1 Parker Correspondence, p. 190.
2 Ibid., p. 178.
CHAPTER VIII
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART
Elizabeth's New Matrimonial Negotiations — Cecil Philosophizes —
Fears of a French Invasion — Mary and Lord Robert Dudley —
Peace Declared Between England and France — John Hales'
Book on the Succession — Reception of the New Spanish
Ambassador — Elizabeth's Anxiety Regarding Mary Stuart's
Marriage — Dudley Again Seeks Spanish Support for His Alliance
with Elizabeth — Darnley and His Mother at Court — Her
Majesty's Visit to Cambridge — Coolness between Elizabeth and
Mary — Melville's Mission to the English Court — Dudley Dis-
claims Responsibility for his Proposed Marriage with Mary —
Melville's Famous Interview with Elizabeth — Dudley created
Earl of Leicester — Elizabeth Plays a Trick on Guzman — She
Declares Herself a Catholic at heart — Young King of France
a Suitor for Elizabeth's Hand — Mary Stuart, Leicester, and
Darnley — Cecil's Despair — The Thames Frozen Over — Guzman's
Opinion of Cecil and Leicester — Was Mary Willing to Marry
Leicester ? — Her Promise to Randolph — Randolph's Congratula-
tions to Leicester — His Consternation on Hearing of Darnley's
Permission to Enter Scotland — Darnley's Arrival and Reception
— BothwelTs Uninvited Return and Departure.
ALTHOUGH the death of the Spanish Ambassador, as well
as that of the Emperor Ferdinand, had afforded Elizabeth
temporary relief from the eternal marriage problem, the
strained relations between England and France, and the
possibility that Mary might step in if she retired altogether,
soon made it advisable again to renew negotiations for the
hand of the Archduke Charles. The new year, too, brought
a new suitor upon the scene — the famous Duke Hans
Casimir, second son of the Elector Palatine, who sent his
portrait to her by James Melville, then in his father's
diplomatic service. Melville demurred, declaring he had
heard that Elizabeth knew herself incapable of bearing a
child, alleging besides her determination that she " would
never subject herself to any man." Eventually, however,
he consented to sound the Queen on the subject while
ostensibly visiting her for some other purpose, with the
result, as he explains at length in his Memoirs, that he
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 303
discovered " that first and last she despised the said Duke
Casimir." There is something definitive about that decision
which is refreshing to the student of Elizabeth's courtships.
The early months of 1564 were largely spent in patching up
the differences between England and France, the success of
the negotiations being seriously endangered by the unseemly
squabbles between the two English Ambassadors, Throck-
morton and Smith. So bitter was the hatred between these
two ambassadors that it came to drawing daggers when
they discussed the final terms of peace. They had been
quarrelling on this occasion as to whether they should stand
out for the 500,000 crowns on Elizabeth's account for the
non-restoration of Calais, or accept the French terms of
120,000 crowns for the return of their hostages. Why
" haggle any longer for money ? " asked Throckmorton
angrily, when the Queen-Mother already knew that they
had another commission to agree to her sum. Smith
wanted to know how she came to understand that. " ' Marry,
you told her,' said he to me," wrote Smith in recounting the
incident to Cecil. " ' I told her ? ' quoth I, ' why or how
should I tell her, when I know not of it myself? And yet
if I had known it, what pleasure or profit should I have
by telling her of it ? ' ' Thou liest,' saith he, ' like an
whoreson traitor as thou art ! ' 'A whoreson traitor ! Nay
thou liest,' quoth I, ' I am as true to the Queen as thou
any day in the week, and have done Her Highness as
faithful and good service as thou.' Hereupon Sir Nicholas
drew his dagger and poured out such terms as his malicious
stomach and furious rage had in store, and called me
errant knave, beggarly knave, traitor, and such other
injuries as came next to hand out of his good store. I
drew my dagger also, Mr. Somers stepped betwixt us,
but as he pressed with his dagger to come near me, I
bade him stand back and not come no nearer to me, or I
would cause him to stand back, and give him such a mark
as his bedlam furious head did deserve." Sir Nicholas's
tongue proved readier than his hand, according to this
account, and with many other frothy words the incident
ended. Cecil sided with his old friend, Sir Thomas Smith,
who in the end, remained in France — to bring about in due
304 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
course that new friendship with that kingdom which was
to play so large a part in England's future foreign policy
— while Throckmorton, gladly enough, returned to England.
Cecil early this year wrote a letter to Smith in which the
man himself, as well as the Secretary of State, stands
revealed with singular clearness :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times.'"}
January n, 1564.
Sir,
I have much cause to thank you for your friendly
dealing with me, and as much or more cause to
praise you for your open and plain dealing, which
I assure you on my faith I do allow more in you
than any other point of your friendship. I love
wisdom and honour it, but when slights and crinks
are joined therewith, as I am sorry sometimes to see,
commonly thereof followeth infinite incommodities
both to the party that useth them, and to them also
that are therewith advised. I know the place which
I hold hath been of years not long passed, adjudged
a shop for cunning men, and yet surely I think the
opinion commonly conceived thereoif hath been
worse than the persons deserved. Some cause I
have so to think, that, knowing before Almighty God
my disposition to deal with all men plainly, and
indeed my inability, or as I may say of myself my
dullness to invent crafts, yet do I not escape evil
judgment, desirous to avoid as much as I may that
opinion ; and where I cannot, content with patience
and testimony of my own conscience to endure. But
behold I am entering at a large gate, to behold mine
own misery, which, to avoid giving you trouble I will
not pursue now. To yourself I will now come ; you
have not been well used, but by whom perchance
you may know better than I. You have been also
well used, and of whom I will not speak, considering
I know no man hath done more than honesty and
reason would. . . . God amend them that, meaning
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 305
to make traps of malice, are for the more part
trapped themselves. I shall speak like an Italian
idiot ! God send them both to amend, and to do as
I would myself, and this I say with the testimony of
a good conscience ; which mind I gather not of any
other philosophy, but of His precepts, that hath
commanded me to love my enemies, for therein
only is the difference between a Christian and a
gentile. For yourself I need give you no counsel,
but I wish you to have the like mind. For when all
the glory and wit, when all the wealth and delight
of this world is passed, we must come before that
Judge that will exact this rule of us, to discern us
from the gentiles. Good Mr. Smith, take my low
base style in this fond mood in good part, and behold
it not with the wisdom of the world, for though my
outward actions are most commonly in public things
of the world, yet, I thank God, I do submit all my
conceits and thoughts as mere folly, to the wisdom
and piety of the Gospel. You may say it is strange
to see a Secretary of State, that is an artificer of
practices and counsels, to fall thus low into divinity.
Well, so simple I am, whatsoever the world may
judge of me for the place, and therein perchance I
do deceive the world.
Now shortly to our matter : you are willed to make
peace, but the means are prescribed, which I and
others thought unlikely three months past : but now
I find divers here persuade themselves with the
contrary. Surely you shall have good luck and
great praise, and therefore labour it. I was glad
this bearer should come to give a testimony of your
diligence, faith, and wisdom, for so shall he do you
much pleasure. And although the matter seem
hard, yet forbear not to use all means to recover it,
wherein, being obtained, your praise shall be the
greater, and being not, yet they which have desired
it shall think your labour well bestowed. Indeed if
our other neighbour on that side the seas were as
inward a friend as reason would even for his own
E.M.S. x
306 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
interest, I then would not doubt of this good end.
But as this bearer shall show you, the case is
otherwise. I heartily thank you for the Polydore,
and for Onuphrius : Onuphrius' works I had
recovered here before, but Polydore not. If you
please the Onuphrius shall be kept for yourself, or
if I may know the price, I will gladly pay for them.
The nervous state of the country at this period may be
judged by Archbishop Parker's fears of a French invasion,
and the inability of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports to
ease the public mind on the subject, the castles on the coast
being forsaken, and the people themselves unarmed :
ARCHBISHOP PARKER TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
{"Correspondence of Matthew Parker."}
CANTERBURY, February 6, 1564.
After my hearty commendations to your honour.
Sir, I must request the same to be an instant mean
(for special respect of our country here) to the Queen's
Majesty and her Council. I assure your honour, I
fear the danger, if it be not speedily looked to, will
be irrecuperable. If the enemy have an entry, as
by great considerations of our weakness and their
strength, of their vigilancy and our dormitation and
protraction, is like, the Queen's Majesty shall never
be able to leave to her successor that which she
found delivered her by God's favourable hand. Posts
and letters with requests be sent, but little return is
made, as I hear, and small aid and comfort come.th
to my lord Warden, a good gentleman and meaneth
honourably, but what can a man do more than may
be done by a man almost destitute of men, money,
and armour, &c. ?
These early months of 1564 were also big with weighty
matters in Scotland, where Randolph was doing his best to
sound Mary Stuart on the pressing question of a husband.
Nothing in the shape of serious negotiations had occurred
in connexion with the Dudley plan since Elizabeth had
astonished Lethington with the offer of her favourite's hand,
3C7
but Randolph was now instructed to persuade Mary, if
possible, to leave the question of her marriage to Elizabeth,
who would be as good as a mother to her. Vague
assurances as to Elizabeth's real intentions only succeeded
in bringing matters to a standstill, but her maiden Majesty
was at length compelled specifically to state that Dudley was
really the husband she had in view for the Queen of Scots.
Mary herself professed to be taken at a disadvantage with
this news. " I thought little of any such matter as you now
propound. ... Is it conformable to her promise to use me
as a sister or daughter, to marry me to a subject ? . . .
What if the Queen my sister should herself marry and have
children ; what have I then gotten ? " However, she agreed
to talk the matter over with Murray and Lethington.
" Lethington was long with her Grace that night," added
Randolph in his letter to Cecil of March 30, " and next
morning I received this answer from him, with great pro-
testation of his mistress's good meaning, without fraud or
mind of .evil — that the matter came upon her unlocked for,
and being of great importance could not straight be answered.
As she could not with honour in so short advertisement grant
it, so would she not so little esteem it as straight reject it :
and therefore desired to have further knowledge what the
Queen's Majesty would do, what should be the conditions,
and what the assurance. For the person himself she could
have no mislikingof him, of whom the report was so good, and
by her good sister was so recommended." l Elizabeth, how-
ever, had no intention of making any definite promise that
Mary's right to the succession — the crux of the whole matter
— would be acknowledged even with the Dudley marriage,
preferring her old policy of fair words and uncertain promises.
" Gentle letters, good words, and pleasant messages, be good
means to begin friendship among princes, but I take them
to be slender bands to hold it long fast," complained Lething-
ton to Cecil in June, in urging that with frank dealing the
affair would " sooner a great deal grow to a conclusion." a
There was some excuse for the delay perhaps while England's
negotiations with France were hanging in the balance, but
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., pp. 56—8.
2 Ibid., pp. 66—7.
X 2
3o8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
all anxiety on that score was quieted in April by the con-
clusion of the Peace of Troyes on the nth of that month
with the tardy acceptance of the French offer to pay 60,000
crowns within six weeks, and a further 60,000 six weeks later :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times,"]
April 27, 1564.
Sir,
Mr. Somers and Mauvissiere came to Windsor the
2Oth of this month, and the treaty must take place
the 23rd, which was a very short time to procure
knowledge to our western sea coasts, or to Ireland,
but what could be done in such a case was expedited.
It was proclaimed in London the 22nd, and on the
23rd a notable good sermon made at Pooles [St.
Paul's] with Te Deum and all incident solemnities.
The same day it was published at Windsor, in the
Queen's Majesty's presence going to the Church,
having with her Majesty the French ambassador, so
as nothing wanted to show content, and yet her
Majesty, inwardly to me and other her counsellors,
showed much misliking, specially, as I guess, because
the money was no more, for honour's sake.
On that day the French King was chosen of the
Order [of the Garter] and so was the Earl of Bedford,
and Sir Henry Sidney. I think my Lord of Hunsdon
shall bring the Order into France, and so shall have
commission to require the oath jointly with you.
The treaties are in new writing and engrossing, to be
here ratified. Wherein all the haste is made that
can be, because Mr. Throckmorton's return dependeth
thereupon. . . .
Here is fallen out a troublesome fond matter. John
Hales1 had secretly made a book in the time of the
last parliament, wherein he hath taken upon him to
1 "A Declaration of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of
England." Its object was to throw aside the Scottish line, and to
support the legality of the marriage of Lady Catherine Grey, whose
son, in that case, would inherit the Suffolk claim to the royal
succession.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 309
discuss no small matter, viz. the title to this crown,
after the Queen's Majesty, having confuted and rejected
the line of the Scottish Queen, and made the line of
the Lady Frances, mother to the Lady Catherine,
only next and lawful. He is committed to the Fleet
for this boldness, especially because he hath com-
municated it to sundry persons. My Lord John Grey
is in trouble also for it. Besides this, John Hales hath
procured sentences and counsels of lawyers from
beyond the seas to be written in maintenance of the
Earl of Hertford's marriage.
This dealing of his offendeth the Queen's Majesty
very much. God give her Majesty by this chance a
disposition to consider hereof, that either by her
marriage, or by some common order, we poor subjects
may know where to lean and adventure our lives
with content of our consciences.
At the writing hereof I am here at Westminster,
attending of that mine office in the wards, and so
pestered with business as I am forced to make this
letter serve both to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton and
you.
Yours assured,
W. CECIL.
Don Diego Guzman de Silva, Dean of Toledo, the Spanish
Ambassador appointed to succeed the late Bishop Quadra,
arrived at his difficult post in the midst of the excitement caused
by the publication of this book by the injudicious clerk of the
hanaper, John Hales. The book was believed to have been
written with the knowledge, if not the help, of Sir Nicholas
Bacon and his brother-in-law Cecil himself, and the Catholics
were eager that the hated Secretary should be made the
chief scapegoat for the affair. Hales himself was imprisoned
in the Fleet for six months ; Bacon was reprimanded, and
Lord John Grey, Lady Catherine's uncle, was kept under
arrest until his death some months later. But, as Guzman
says, the Queen stopped at that, finding " so many accom-
plices in the offence that they must overlook it." At a later
date he was told " for certain " that the Queen on no account
310 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
desired the declaration of a successor. " She does not want
anyone to whom her subjects could go secretly and offer
their devotion as they came to her when she was a prisoner." *
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, VoL I.]
LONDON, June 27, 1564.
As I wrote to your Majesty, I arrived in London on
the i8th instant, and on the following day, the Queen
sent a gentleman of her chamber to visit me, and
congratulate me on my arrival in this country, with
many compliments and courtesies. Lord Robert had
previously sent and made me a similar visit, which I
returned by one of my people on the Tuesday, thank-
ing him for having borne me in mind. I asked
through him an audience of the Queen, which he
obtained at once, and fixed the 22nd for it to take
place. I left London for Richmond where the Court
now is and disembarked near the palace, finding
awaiting me on the riverbank Dudley, a relative of
Lord Robert, who was in the French service, and a
brother-in-law of Throckmorton, who accompanied
me to the palace, and conducted me to the Council
Chamber. Presently there came to me on behalf of
the Queen Lord Darnley, the son of Lady Margaret
Lennox, who led me to the door of the presence
chamber, where I was met by the Lord Chamberlain,
who entered with me and accompanied me to the
Queen. She was standing in the chamber listening
to a keyed instrument that was being played, and, as
soon as she saw me, took three or four steps towards
me and embraced me. Addressing me in the Italian
language she said she did not know in what tongue
to speak to me, and I answered her in Latin, with a
brief discourse, a copy of which I send to Gonzalo
Perez [the King's Secretary] as it is written in that
language. I then handed her your Majesty's letter,
which she took and gave to Cecil to open. When it
1 Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 374.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 311
was opened he handed it back to her, and she read it
and answered me in Latin with elegance, facility and
ease, appearing to be very glad of my coming, and
saying how much she had desired it, both for the
sake of having news of your Majesty and to have a
Minister of your Majesty near her, as there were some
friendly countries trying to make her believe that your
Majesty would never again have a representative here,
and she was glad that they had turned out false pro-
phets. She said I should be treated and considered
in accord with the deep interest which, for many
reasons, she took in your Majesty's affairs. After
asking after your Majesty's health she took me aside
and asked me very minutely about the Prince — his
health and disposition, and afterwards about the
Princess,1 saying how much she should like to see
her, and how well so young a widow and a maiden
would get on together, and what a pleasant life they
could lead. She (the Queen) being the elder would
be the husband, and her Highness the wife. She
dwelt upon this for a time, talking now in Italian,
which she speaks well, and, as if by the way, asked
me about the Queen, and then turned the conversation
to your Majesty, and how you had seen her when she
was sorrowful, distressed, and ill-treated, imprisoned,
and afflicted, and how she had grown greatly since
then, and even gave me to understand that she had
greatly changed in her appearance since that time.
After she had said a great deal about this and other
things of a similar sort, I gave her the letters from
the Duchess of Parma, and conveyed her Highness'
good wishes to her, to which she replied graciously,
and then touched somewhat upon the affairs of the
States, and even referred to the matter of the ill-treat-
ment of the sailors at Gibralter. I only told her that
I did not give any answer to that, as I wished to
spend all the time in the pleasure of hearing of the
1 Juana, the widowed princess of Portugal, younger sister of
Philip. She had been regent of Spain during the absence of
Charles V. and Philip from the Peninsula. — Hume.
312 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
friendship and affection which she entertained towards
your Majesty ; and on another day I would give her
a full account of everything, so that she should see
that not only did your Majesty show kindness and
brotherhood towards her, but that your subjects, see-
ing this, showed the same by their deeds, which was
more than could be said of some of her subjects.
She answered that when I liked, and as often as I
liked, she would hear me with pleasure, and we could
then deal with this matter. She urged me very much
to use my best offices with your Majesty, and assure
you of her good will, as she had been given to under-
stand that this had not always been done by other
ministers, and this might perhaps have caused your
Majesty some annoyance without any fault of hers, or
any cause on her part ; as she had given, and would
give, none. With this she embraced me again, and
retired to her apartment, telling me to talk to the
lords who were there. They approached me as soon
as she had retired, and Lord Robert, the Earl of Pem-
broke, the Admiral, the Marquess of Northampton,
the Lord Chamberlain, and Secretary Cecil, came
separately and embraced me, congratulating me on
my arrival and expressing their pleasure. They
asked after your Majesty and I replied by assuring
them of the favour you desired to extend to them, and
your affection for this country and the principal
people in it. I then took my leave, the Lord Cham-
berlain remaining with me to conduct me to the door
of the antechamber, and thence Lady Margaret's son,
and the brother-in-law of Throckmorton, with a
gentleman of the household of the Queen, accompanied
me to the landing-place.
A great friend of Lord Robert has been to visit me
on his behalf, and has informed me of the great
enmity that exists between Cecil and Lord Robert,
even before this book about the succession was pub-
lished, but now very much more, as be believes Cecil to
be the author of the book, and the Queen is extremely
angry about it, although she signifies that there are
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 313
so many accomplices in the offence that they must
overlook it, and has begun to slacken in the matter.
This person has asked me from Robert with great
secrecy to take an opportunity in speaking to the Queen
(or to make such opportunity) to urge her not to fail
in adopting strong measures in this business, as if
Cecil were out of the way, the affairs of your Majesty
would be more favourably dealt with, and religious
questions as well, because this Cecil and his friends
are those who persecute the Catholics and dislike
your Majesty, whereas the other man is looked upon
as faithful, and the rest of the Catholics so consider
him, and have adopted him as their weapon. If the
Queen would disgrace Cecil it would be a great good
to them, and this man tried to persuade me to make
use of Robert. I answered him that I intended to
avail myself of him in all things, and I was quite
sure your Majesty would be pleased that I should
do so. With regard to this particular business,
also, I would be glad to do as Robert desired.
I shall act with caution in the matter and see how
I had better proceed, although I have advice reaching
me from all sides, and particularly from Catholics, that
this punishment should be pressed upon the Queen.
The amiable, courtly Guzman soon became a great
favourite with Elizabeth, who not only liked him personally
but also found it still advisable to trim her sails in his
master's direction :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar: Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, July 10, 1564.
When I arrived at the house where the Queen was
they showed me into a room until her Majesty knew
of my arrival. She was walking in the garden with
her ladies, and sent the Lord Chamberlain for me
to go to her. She raised me with a great show of
pleasure, and said that her ardent wish to see me
had caused her to give me this trouble, and that
314 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
I was to forget that the Queen was there, and look
upon her as a private lady, the preparations not
being hers but those of a friend and subject, although
the house was well prepared and her nobles were
round her. I answered that wherever monarchs
were there was their regal state, as I perceived in
this case. We then went up into a very large gallery,
where she took me aside for nearly an hour, all
her talk being about your Majesty, and on several
occasions during the conversation she recalled events
that had occurred when she had first come to the
throne, telling them so minutely that I will not tire
your Majesty by repeating them. She was so taken
up with it that I think she was sorry when supper
was announced. Speaking of France, she said that
she had received a letter written in Lyons, from the
Queen, brought by her (the French) Ambassador
that morning, who had arrived at dinner-time, and
had had to wait. This was, I think, to satisfy me that
she had not asked him to dinner. We then went to
supper, which was served with great ceremony, as
is usual here, and every attention and honour was
shown to me. She ordered her musicians to play
the Battle of Pavia, which she assured me was the
music she enjoyed most. After supper she stayed
talking to me for some time, and as it was already
late I thought it was time to leave her. I was about
to take my leave when she told me not to go yet, as
she wished me to see a comedy that was to be acted.
She said she would go into her chamber for a short
time, and in the meanwhile Lord Robert was to
entertain me.
Robert made me great offers of service, saying
how bound he was to your Majesty, both on account
of the favours you had done him, and because you
had been his Sovereign. I thanked him as well as
I could.
The Queen came out to the hall, which was lit
with many torches, where the comedy was repre-
sented. I should not have understood much of it if
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 315
the Queen had not interpreted, as she told me she
would do. They generally deal with marriage in the
comedies, and she turned to me and asked again
about your Majesty, and whether the Prince (Don
Carlos) had grown. I told her he had, and after
thinking awhile she said, " Well, everyone disdains
me ; I understand he is to be married to the Queen of
Scots." I said, " Do not believe it your Majesty.
His Highness has been so ill with constant fever and
other maladies of late years, that it has been
impossible to think of his marriage, but now that
he is well again people talk of these matters without
knowledge. It is no new thing for great princes to
be the subjects of gossip." " So true is that," said
the Queen, "that they said in London the other day
that the King, my brother, was sending an Ambas-
sador to treat of the marriage of the Prince with
me!"
The comedy ended, and then there was a masque of
certain gentlemen who entered dressed in black and
white, which the Queen told me were her colours, and
after dancing awhile one of them approached and
handed the Queen a sonnet in English, praising her.
She told me what it said, and I expressed my pleasure
at it. This ended the feast, and the Queen entered
a gallery, where there was a very long table with
every sort and kind of preserves and candied fruits
that can be imagined, according to the English
custom. It must have been two in the morning,
and the Queen had to return to Westminster by
water, although it was very windy. She sent me
back to my lodgings accompanied by the same
gentleman as had brought me, as I had come by
land.
The reference to Don Carlos discloses something of
Elizabeth's anxiety lest Mary Stuart should become Philip's
daughter-in-law. This was Mary's highest ambition, but
Philip had now abandoned that idea. " As to the Queen of
Scots," he wrote to Guzman in August, " I understand that
3i6 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
Cardinal Lorraine has offered this marriage to the Emperor
for the Archduke Charles, and for this and other sufficient
reasons the proposal to marry the said Queen to my son
Carlos must now be considered at an end." * With regard
to Elizabeth and Dudley the new Ambassador was instructed
to follow on the lines previously laid down for his predecessor.
Lord Robert had already taken Guzman into his confidence,
and was as ready as ever to sell his soul if Philip would
support his suit to marry the Queen. " In case he assures
you," wrote Philip, " that if he succeeds he will reduce the
kingdom to our true, ancient Catholic religion, and obedience
to the Pope, you may promise him that we will readily help
and favour him, and with this aim and object you will keep
as cordial and friendly with him as you can, although at the
same time you must discover from him if he has any other
engagements to support him and where and from whom he
expects to obtain help besides from me." 2
Perhaps it was with a view of using Darnley as a possible
trail across the path of Mary's matrimonial plans that Eliza-
beth had now temporarily restored her uncertain favour to
Lady Margaret Lennox and her son. Both Lady Margaret and
her husband had been released more than a year ago, when
they had returned to Settrington, in Yorkshire, to set their
long forsaken house in order. Elizabeth asked and obtained
Mary's license for Lennox's return to Scotland in order to
attend to his affairs there, and was then mean enough to
request Mary in secret to stay his permit for a year, on the
plea that his return would offend his own friends in Scotland.
This piece of double-dealing failed of its purpose, and brought
indignant letters on the subject from Mary and Lethington.
To the Countess and Darnley Elizabeth showed high regard.
We find them both at Court this summer with Darnley carry-
ing the sword before her Majesty on State occasions, and Lady
Margaret herself, on July 6, standing godmother with the
Queen to Cecil's infant daughter Elizabeth. An additional
honour was shown to Cecil in the following month of August
when the Queen paid her visit to the University of Cambridge,
of which he had been Chancellor since 1559. Her splendid
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 371.
2 Ibid., pp. 371 — 2.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 317
entertainment, with its mixture of solemn orations, disputa-
tions, and pagan plays, has been fully set forth in the
" Progresses of Queen Elizabeth." Guzman furnishes a
curious footnote to John Nichols's record :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, August 19, 1564.
When the Queen was at Cambridge they represented
comedies and held scientific disputations, and an
argument on religion, in which the man who defended
Catholicism was attacked by those who presided, in
order to avoid having to give him the prize. The
Queen made a speech praising the acts and exercises,
and they wished to give her another representation,
which she refused, in order to be no longer delayed.
Those who were so anxious for her to hear it, followed
her to her first stopping-place, and so importuned her
that at last she consented. The actors came in dressed
as some of the imprisoned Bishops. First came the
Bishop of London carrying a lamb in his hands, as if
he were eating it as he walked along, and then others
with different devices, one being in the figure of a dog
with the Host in his mouth. They write that the Queen
was so angry that she at once entered her chamber,
using strong language, and the men who held the
torches, it being night, left them in the dark, and so
ended the thoughtless and scandalous representation.
Guzman soon realised how matters stood between
Elizabeth and Mary. On September 4 he wrote that
instructions had been sent "to keep a sharp look-out on
affairs in Scotland as, although the two Queens correspond
and keep each other in play until one or the other of
them shows her hand, they both go in fear and will give
but short grace."1 A dangerous coolness had sprung up
between them because of the tone of Mary's letters on the
subject of the recall of Lennox. Having taken into her
service the returned James Melville — he had been her page
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 377.
3i8 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
in her childhood days in France — Mary sent him to London
to smooth matteis with Elizabeth. We have it on
Melville's authority that she secretly charged him at the
same time to deal with Darnley's mother, and " to purchase
leave for him to pass to Scotland." The envoy arrived at
the English Court early in October, and was soon asked
anxiously by Dudley what the Queen of Scots thought of
him, and of the proposed marriage. " Whereunto," writes
Melville in his oft-quoted " Memoirs," " I answered very
coldly, as I had been by my Queen commanded. Then he
began to purge himself of so proud a pretence as to marry so
great a Queen, declaring that he did not esteem himself
worthy to wipe her shoes, and that the invitation of that
proposition of marriage proceeded from Mr. Cecil, his
secret enemy : ' For if I,' said he, ' should have appeared
desirous of that marriage, I should have offended both the
Queens, and lost their favour.' ' Which only shows how
difficult it is to arrive at the truth when almost everyone
concerned was a pastmaster in the art of dissembling. Of
Melville's interviews with the Queen he has himself left in his
" Memoirs " the intimate account which students of the period
must now know by heart. Even so, it is impossible to
resist using part of it to complete this connecting link
between the letters of Guzman de Silva :
The old friendship being renewed, Elizabeth
inquired if the Queen had sent any answer to the
proposition of marriage made to her by Mr.
Randolph. I answered, as I had been instructed,
that my mistress thought little or nothing thereof,
but attended the meeting of some commissioners
upon the borders .... to confer and treat upon all
such matters of greatest importance, as should be
judged to concern the quiet of both countries, and
the satisfaction of both their majesties' minds.
Adding, " the Queen my mistress is minded, as I
have said, to send for her part my Lord of Murray,
and the Secretary Lethington, and expects your
Majesty will send my Lord of Bedford and my
Lord Robert Dudley." She answered, it appeared I
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 319
made but small account of my Lord Robert, seeing
I named the Earl of Bedford before him, but that
erelong she would make him a far greater earl, and
that I should see it done before my returning home.
For she esteemed him as her brother and best
friend, whom she would have herself married had she
ever minded to have taken a husband. But being
determined to end her life in virginity, she wished the
Queen her sister might marry him, as meetest of all
other with whom she could find in her heart to
declare her second person. For being matched with
him, it would remove out of her mind all fears and
suspicions, to be offended by any usurpation before
her death, being assured that he was so loving and
trusty that he would never suffer any such thing to be
attempted during her time. And that the Queen my
mistress might have the higher esteem of him, I was
required to stay till I should see him made Earl of
Leicester and Baron of Denbigh ; which was done at
Westminster with great solemnity, the Queen herself
helping to put on his ceremonial (mantle), he sitting
upon his knees before her with a great gravity. But
she could not refrain from putting her hand in his
neck, smilingly tickling him, the French ambassador
and I standing by. Then she turned, asking me
how I liked him ? I answered, that as he was a worthy
servant, so he was happy, who had a princess who
could discern and reward good service. " Yet," says
she, "you like better of yonder long lad," pointing
towards my Lord Darnley, who, as nearest prince of
the blood, did bear the sword of honour that day
before her.
She appeared to be so affectionate to the Queen
her good sister that she expressed a great desire to
see her. And because their so much by her desired
meeting could not so hastily be brought to pass,
she appeared with great delight to look upon her
Majesty's picture. She took me to her bed-chamber,
and opened a little cabinet, wherein were divers little
pictures wrapped within paper, and their names
320 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
written with her own hand upon the papers. Upon
the first that she took up was written " My lord's
picture.'' I held the candle, and pressed to see that
picture so named ; she appeared loath to let me see
it, yet my importunity prevailed for a sight thereof,
and I found it to be the Earl of Leicester's picture.
I desired that I might have it to carry home to my
Queen, which she refused, alleging that she had but
that one picture of his. I said, " Your Majesty hath-
here the original," for I perceived him at the furthest
part of the chamber, speaking with Secretary Cecil.
Then she took out the Queen's picture, and kissed it,
and I adventured to kiss her hand, for the great love
evidenced therein to my mistress. She showed me
also a fair ruby, as great as a tennis-ball ; I desired
that she would send either it, or my Lord of
Leicester's picture, as a token to my Queen. She
said that if the Queen would follow her counsel, she
would in process of time get all that she had ; that
in the meantime she was resolved in a token to send
her with me a fair diamond. It was at this time late
after supper ; she appointed me to be with her the
next morning by eight of the clock, at which time she
used to walk in her garden. . . .
At divers meetings we had divers purposes. The
Queen my mistress had instructed me to leave matters
of gravity sometimes, and cast in merry purposes,
lest otherwise she should be wearied ; she being well
informed of that Queen's natural temper. Therefore
in declaring my observations of the customs of Dutch-
land, Poland, and Italy, the buskins of the women
were not forgot, and what country weed I thought
best becoming gentlewomen. The Queen said she
had clothes of every sort, which every day thereafter,
so long as I was there, she changed. One day she
had the English weed, another the French, and
another the Italian, and so forth. She asked me,
which of them became her best ? I answered, in my
judgment the Italian dress ; which answer I found
pleased her well, for she delighted to show her golden
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 321
coloured hair, wearing a caul and bonnet as they do
in Italy. Her hair was rather reddish than yellow,
curled in appearance naturally.
She desired to know of me what colour of hair was
reputed best, and whether my Queen's hair or hers
was best, and which of them two was fairest ? I
answered, the fairness of them both was not their worst
faults. But she was earnest with me to declare which
of them I judged fairest ? I said, she was the fairest
Queen in England, and mine in Scotland. Yet she
appeared earnest. I answered, they were both the
fairest ladies in their countries ; that her Majesty was
whiter, but my Queen was very lovely. She enquired
which of them was of highest stature ? I said, " My
Queen." " Then," saith she, " she is too high, for I
myself am neither too high nor too low." Then she
asked what exercises she used ? I answered that
when I received my dispatch, the Queen was lately
come from the Highland hunting. That when her
more serious affairs permitted, she was taken up with
reading of histories : that sometimes she recreated
herself in playing upon the lute and virginals. She
asked if she played well ? I said, " Reasonably, for a
Queen."
That same day after dinner, my Lord of Hunsdon
drew me up to a quiet gallery that I might hear some
music, but he said he durst not avow it, where I
might hear the Queen play upon the virginals. After
I had barkened awhile, standing by the tapestry that
hung before the door of the chamber, and seeing her
back was toward the door, I ventured within the
chamber, and stood a pretty space hearing her play
excellently well ; but she left off immediately, so soon
as she turned about and saw me. She appeared to be
surprised to see me, and came forward, seeming to
strike me with her hand, alleging that she used not to
play before men, but when she was solitary, to shun
melancholy. She asked how I came there ? I
answered, as I was walking with my Lord of Huns-
don, as we passed by the chamber door, I heard such
E.M.S. Y
322 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
melody as ravished me, whereby I was drawn in ere I
knew how, excusing my fault of homeliness, as being
brought up in the Court of France, where such free-
dom was allowed ; declaring myself willing to endure
what kind of punishment her Majesty should be pleased
to inflict upon me, for so great an offence. Then she
sat down low upon a cushion, and I upon my knees
by her, but with her own hand she gave me a cushion
to lay under my knee, which at first I refused, but
she compelled me to take it. She then called for my
Lady Stafford out of the next chamber, for the Queen
was alone. She enquired whether my Queen or she
played best ? In that I found myself obliged to give
her the praise. She said my French was very good,
and asked if I could speak Italian, which she spoke
reasonably well. I told her Majesty I had no time to
learn the language, not having been above two months
in Italy. Then she spake to me in Dutch, which was
not good ; and would know what kind of books I
most delighted in. whether theology, history, or love
matters ? I said I liked well of all the sorts. Here I
took occasion to press earnestly my dispatch : she
said I was sooner weary of her company than she was
of mine. I told her Majesty that though I had no
reason of being weary, I knew my mistress's affairs
called me home. Yet I was stayed two days longer,
that I might see her dance, as I was afterward
informed. Which being over, she enquired of me
whether she or my Queen danced best ? I answered,
the Queen danced not so highly or disposedly as she
did. Then again she wished that she might see the
Queen at some convenient place of meeting. I offered
to convey her secretly to Scotland by post, cloathed
like a page, that under this disguise she might see
the Queen, as James V. had gone in disguise with his
own ambassador to see the Duke of Vendome's sister,
who should have been his wife ; telling her that her
chamber might be kept in her absence, as though she
were sick ; that none need be privy thereto except
Lady Stafford, and one of the grooms of her chamber.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 323
She appeared to like that kind of language, only
answering it with a sigh, saying, "Alas, if I might do
it thus ! "
Guzman now resumes the narrative with a delightful
instance of the manner in which the maiden Queen loved to
try her blandishments on the new Ambassador :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO THE DUCHESS OF PARMA.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, September 23, 1564.
As your Highness knows, the Marchioness of
Northampton * is a great favourite of the Queen, and
I am gaining the goodwill of her intimates, so as to
gain more influence over her mistress. She is a
person of great understanding, and is so much esteemed
by the Queen that some little friction exists between
her and Robert. I understand, however, that she
bears herself towards him in a way that, together
with other things that can be better imagined
than described, makes me doubt sometimes whether
Robert's position is so irregular as many think. It is
nothing for princes to hear evil, even without giving
any cause for it.
Before the Queen came back I went to visit the
Marchioness of Northampton, and when I was taking
my leave she said she had something important to
say to me, which she must defer to another day, and
in consequence of the return here of the Queen, I did
not go again for six or seven days, when on the
1 5th instant I sent to ask after the Marchioness'
indisposition, and if I could visit her that afternoon.
She sent to say that she should be delighted, and I
went by water to Westminster, where she lives, and
there found the Queen, who had gone over from St.
1 The Marchioness was a daughter of Lord Cobham, and had been
married in her early youth to William Parr, Marquess of North-
ampton, brother of Queen Catherine Parr. A doubtfully legal
divorce had been previously obtained by him from his former wife,
and his second marriage had been declared invalid in the reign of
Mary. Elizabeth had recognised it, but was quite ready to throw
the matter in his teeth when angry. — Hume.
Y 2
324 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
James's to dine with her almost alone, and was there
when I had sent word, as I afterwards found out.
They played me this trick between them, and kept
the secret until I was in the Queen's presence, and
then laughed greatly at it. I was there until almost
night, the Marchioness on her couch, and the Queen
near her. What passed were mostly tales told by the
Queen and ordinary conversation, into which she was
constantly slipping some slight allusions to marriage.
I told her she was wrong to keep the world in
suspense, and ought to decide. She laughed and
said she had something to say to me about our
business, and on her return at nightfall to St. James's
through the park she went on foot, although she had
a carriage waiting, and took me part of the way with
her. On the way she said that a fool who was about
there had advised her never to marry a German, as
they were bad men. She spoke about nothing else,
and made me turn back, so that I might return by
water, as I had come.
I learn on good authority that Lord Robert has
no chance, and the talk is now all about the Arch-
duke. The Queen has even said something about
visiting the Emperor.
After Melville's visit Guzman learnt that Elizabeth had
told that Ambassador among other things, " that she was
not so old yet that they need continually keep her death before
her eyes by talking about the succession " ; but that Par-
liament should deal with the question when it sat.1 Elizabeth
now sought to convince Guzman himself that in spite of
her outward Protestantism she was a Catholic at heart —
" but not so clearly as I could have wished," he added
in mentioning this incident :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
October 9, 1564.
As I have advised, Cecil's favour has been
wavering, but he knows how to please, and avoids
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 387.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 325
saying things the Queen does not wish to hear, and
above all, as I am told, can flatter her, so he has
kept his place, and things are in the same position
as formerly. Robert makes the best of it. The
outward demonstrations are fair, but the inner
feelings the same as before. I do not know how
long they will last. They dissemble, but Cecil has
more wit than all of them. Their envy of him is
very great. This Queen, referring no doubt to the
beginning of her reign, told me that she had had to
conceal her real feelings to prevail with her subjects
in matters of religion, but that God knew her heart,
which was true to His service. She said other things
to give me to understand that she was right in spirit,
but not so clearly as I could have wished. There
was no good opportunity of carrying this coversation
further.
I told her, as I am sure she knew, that her preachers
spoke ill of her because she had a cross on the altar
of her chapel, and that they did in this a daring
disrespect to her person. She signified that she
should order crosses to be put into the churches, and
that some of the newly rebuilt ones have stone
crosses, not inside but on the towers. She said also,
" They charge me with a good many things, in my
own country and elsewhere, and, among others, that
I show more favour to Robert than is fitting ;
speaking of me as they might speak of an immodest
woman. I am not surprised that the occasion for it
should have been given by a young woman and
young man of good qualities, to whose merits and
goodness I have shown favour, although not so
much as he deserves, but God knows how great a
slander it is, and a time will come when the world
will know it. My life is in the open, and I have so
many witnesses that I cannot understand how so
bad a judgment can have been formed of me."
She afterwards spoke of the Queen of Scotland,
praising her beauty, and went on to say that she had
heard that she was going to marry our Prince.
326 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
I laughed, and said that I was told it was more
likely to be the King of France. She said no, that
was not so, because the Queen of France and Scot-
land were on bad terms respecting a certain affair,
and the French had approached her (Elizabeth) with
a view to her marrying their King, assuring her that
she could do it better, and that it was a more suitable
marriage than that which your Majesty contracted
with her sister. She, however, had laughed at it,
and treated it as a thing not to be spoken of
considering their ages.
Surprising though this last statement undoubtedly was, it
was perfectly true. The matter had first been mooted by
the Prince of Cond6 months before, during the peace
negotiations in Paris, but Sir Thomas Smith had dismissed
the idea as impossible. Now, however, the scheme had
been taken up by Catherine de Medici, who, seeing in it
some hope of strengthening her position against the increas-
ing strength of the Catholic and Spanish combination, opened
negotiations through her Ambassador, Michael Castelnau,
Seigneur de Mauvissiere. Charles IX. at that time was
only about sixteen, but had recently been declared by the
States of France to have attained his majority, although his
mother continued to govern in his name. Elizabeth assured
Castelnau that " She was greatly obliged for the signal
honour that was done her by so mighty and powerful a King,
to whom, as well as to the Queen, his mother, she professed
herself infinitely beholden, but that she felt this difficulty:
the most Christian King, her good brother, was too great
and too small — too great, as a monarch of such a realm, to
be able to quit his own dominions to cross the sea and
remain in England, where the people always expected their
Kings and Queens to live ; too small," she explained by saying,
" that his Majesty was young, and she was already thirty,
which she called old."1 The matter, as will be seen, was not
allowed to stay there, Catherine making a fresh attempt in
the following year by means of her resident Ambassador,
Paul de Foix.
1 Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of England."
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 327
Mary's matrimonial prospects, meanwhile, showed little
signs of improvement. The Leicester match was kept
dangling before her eyes, with a profusion of promises on
Elizabeth's part, but no proper security for their fulfilment.
On the other hand Elizabeth had made it sufficiently clear
that any foreign alliance would at once lead to her open
enmity, and Mary may have already known — what she
certainly learned before the year was out — that Don Carlos,
whom she would have preferred above all others, was no
longer a possible suitor. There was Lord Darnley, of
course, but it is doubtful whether she realised how inevitably
she was moving towards the irretrievable tragedy of that
alternative match when she restored to his father, the Earl
of Lennox, his long-forfeited estates in Scotland. Lennox
and the Countess were at first — this was in August — granted
permission by Elizabeth to take Darnley with them on that
occasion, but Elizabeth grew suspicious, and would only
allow Lennox to go alone. Mary refers to his reinstatement
in her secret letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, who had
retired to Paris on the death of the Queen Regent, and
remained there as Scottish Ambassador until his death :
THE QUEEN OF SCOTS TO ARCHBISHOP BEATON.
[Strickland's " Letters of Mary Queen of Scots"]
EDINBURGH, November 2, 1564.
Monsieur de Glasgow,
The bearer of this has begged so earnestly to be
taken into my service, that, without considering his
youth, as I had before done, I would not let him set
out without this short letter, in which I shall not give
you much news, referring to that which I have
commanded him to say relative to the appointments of
the Duke of Chatelherault and of the Earl of Lennox.
. . . also about the return of Melville, whom I sent
to the Queen, my good sister, with an apology for
some letters which I had written to her, and which
she considered rather rude ; but she took the inter-
pretation which he put upon them in good part, and
has since sent to me Randolph, who is here at
present, and has brought me some very kind and
328 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
polite letters, written by her own hand, containing
fair words, and some complaints that the Queen l and
her ambassador .... had assured her that I had
published in mockery proposals which she had made
me to marry Lord Robert. I cannot imagine that
any of those over there could wish to embroil me so
much with her, since I have neither spoken to any
body, not written respecting this proposal, not even
to the Queen, who, I am sure, would not have borne
such testimony against me ; but I have thought of
writing about it to M. de Foix and to Baptiste. In.
the mean time, if you hear any thing, talk to him on
his return from England ; let me know, but do not
mention a word about what I am writing to you to
any one whatever.
For the rest, I shall hold the Parliament on the 5th
of next month, for the sole purpose of reinstating the
Earl of Lennox in his possessions, and afterwards I
shall not fail to dispatch to you a gentleman, who will
acquaint you with all that has occurred more at
length than I can inform you at present.
Your very kind mistress and friend,
MARY R.
Lennox's restitution was proclaimed at the market cross
in Edinburgh not long after this letter was written, before
the meeting of Parliament. The Earl had already repeated
his request to Elizabeth for Darnley's presence on his
estates — with the following result :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
October g, 1564.
. . . Nothing fresh has been heard from Scotland
since the Queen restored his estates to Lord Lennox.
He has written to this Queen informing her that, as
his relatives and lawyers are of opinion that the
presence of his son is necessary for the preservation
1 Catherine de' Medici.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 329
of these estates, he begs her to give him leave to
come and take joint possession with him. The
Queen replied to Lady Margaret, congratulating her
on the restoration of her husband's estate, and said
she would be pleased to give her son the license
requested. This was repeated to her also by Cecil and
Leicester, but, after the license was granted the next
day, the Queen said to Margaret that she was very
vexed and offended at her husband for having asked
for the license for the son with all this caution, saying
that his lawyers had advised him that his son's
presence was necessary to take possession of the
estate, when such was not the fact. For this reason
she had decided not to give him leave to go, as she
would have done willingly if she had been asked in a
straightforward way. Margaret explained the matter
in such a way that the Queen again said she would
give the license, and would answer her husband's
letter. Notwithstanding all this it has been decided
not to give the license.
This is the way with everything — absolutely no
certainty. This Lennox, Margaret and her son, are
Catholics, and profess attachment to your Majesty.
I do what is requisite to entertain them, although
with great caution and secrecy. As Margaret is one
of the claimants to the succession, and a Catholic,
the Queen and her Ministers attach a great deal of
importance to her, and are so suspicious, so excited
and so anxious, that Margaret says they conduct
themselves as if they were frantic, and certainly she
is not far wrong.
Elizabeth now turned her attention to Mary's possible
marriage with the Archduke Charles, affecting to believe that
negotiations were in progress with that end in view. The
familiar farce was accordingly revived of discussing with the
Spanish Ambassador Elizabeth's own prospects in the same
direction. Guzman realised the likelihood of deception, but
was willing to write to Philip for instructions. " Although
these people are false generally," he told him, "they may
330 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
not be so in this case." l That was all that Elizabeth wanted
— to keep Philip on tenterhooks again, pointing out that the
alternative was still open to her of marrying the young King
of France. In December Elizabeth agreed to the meeting at
Berwick between Randolph and Bedford on the one hand,
and Lord James (now Earl of Murray) and Lethington on
the other, with the object, if possible, of providing Mary with
an English husband. Guzman declares that Elizabeth now
offered Mary the choice of three :
At Berwick on the Scottish frontier the Earl of
Bedford, who is at present general there, and the
Ambassador who recently left here for Scotland,
Randolph by name, have had a meeting with Lord
James, the Queen of Scotland's brother, and Secretary
Lethington, on behalf of the respective Queens. They
say the discussion has been about the marriage of
the Scottish Queen, and that a proposal has been
made to her by this Queen that she should choose
between the following three Englishmen — the Earl of
Leicester, the Duke of Norfolk, and the son of Lady
Margaret Lennox, and in the event of her marrying
either of them she will declare her heiress to the
crown. It is said that the conclusion arrived at by
the Queen of Scotland was that she was willing to
marry an Englishman if the succession was declared,
but not the Earl of Leicester, although she said
nothing of the other two. It is also asserted that
Lethington will soon be here to arrange this and
other business. I am informed that the Queen of
Scotland has written to this Queen asking her still
to give leave for Lady Margaret's son to come to his
father in Scotland. I am also told that the French
are endeavouring to arrange a marriage for the Queen
of Scotland in France, and have offered her several
persons of that country. How these negotiations will
end it is impossible to predict.2
Cecil was evidently as much in the dark on this point as
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 395.
2 Ibid., p. 399.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 331
was the Spanish Ambassador, and saw the happiest issue out
of all his afflictions in a suitable marriage for his own fickle
mistress. In the following letter he does not mention the
Duke of Norfolk as being among the candidates for Mary's
hand "at the Berwick meeting, Darnley and Leicester
apparently having the field to themselves :
SIR WILLIAM CECIL TO SIR THOMAS SMITH.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times"]
December 30, 1564.
. . . The Earl of Lennox's friends wish that the
Lord of Darnley might marry with the Scottish
Queen, and I see some device to bring the Queen's
Majesty not only to allow thereof, but also to move it
to the Queen her sister. But I see no disposition
thereto in her Majesty, but she rather continueth
her desire to have my Lord of Leicester preferred
that way, for which purpose there was this last
month a meeting at Berwick with my Lord of
Murray and the Lord of Lethington, but yet covered
with some other matters. And now of late it is from
thence renewed, to know with what conditions the
Queen's Majesty will prefer him, wherein at this
present no full answer is yet given ; but to say the
truth of my knowledge in these fickle matters, I can
affirm nothing that I can assure to continue. I see
the Queen's Majesty very desirous to have my Lord
of Leicester placed in this high degree to be the
Scottish Queen's husband ; but when it cometh to
the conditions which are demanded, I see her then
remiss of her earnestness.
This also I see in the Queen's Majesty, a sufficient
content to be moved to marry abroad, and if it so
may please Almighty God to lead by the hand some
meet person to come and lay hand on her to her
content, I could then wish myself more health to
endure my years somewhat longer to enjoy such
a world here as I trust will follow ; otherwise I assure
you, as now things hang in desperation, I have no
comfort to live.
332 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
The new year dawned with a frost so intense that the
Thames was completely frozen over, "and people walk
upon it," wrote the Spanish Ambassador, " as they do the
streets. Natives say they have never seen such a thing
before, and it is very trying for the weak. It has found out
the Queen, whose constitution cannot be very strong."1
Elizabeth had been ill with a feverish cold, and was unable
to see the Ambassador since Christmas Eve. Leicester
told him that her illness had made her very thin. A second
letter from Guzman to the King on the same day is interesting
as showing how Leicester and Cecil impressed the new
diplomatist from the Spanish Court :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, January 2, 1565.
Although I have written that this Queen has been
ill with catarrh, she has also had an attack of the
pains in the head to which she is subject. They
inform me that the physicians who attend her con-
sider her constitution a weak and unhealthy one.
It is true young people can get over anything, but
your Majesty should note that she is not considered
likely to have a long life.
The Earl of Leicester is still in favour. He shows
the same goodwill towards your Majesty's interests.
I believe he desires to please everybody, as he seems
well disposed, and has no inclination to do harm.
The French Ambassador cultivates his friendship
both in obedience to instructions from the King, and
because Leicester's father was attached to the French,
and he also has a liking for them, although if he tells
the truth his affection for and desire to serve your
Majesty are much stronger. He was considered
here more Catholic than Protestant, but recently he
has done two things that make some people think
he is not so. First, the Queen having ordered
the image to be placed in her chapel, he had it
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 401.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 333
removed ; and next, when the men they call ministers
and ecclesiastics here were ordered to wear a proper
dress, in accordance with the ancient custom of the
country, and to put on a surplice during the service,
the ministers complained to him saying that they
wished to make Papists of them, and by his help the
order has been dropped, as have some other measures
of amendment. The Queen, as usual, has a cross
upon the altar. If what some people say is to be
believed she is not comfortable with her Protestants,
nor with the doctrines of the other side either, and,
in the meanwhile, provides no amendment, and gives
ground for the assertion that she is an atheist, and
Leicester as well. I ought not presume to judge thus
freely. . . .
When I first arrived here I had imagined Secretary
Cecil, judging by the accounts given me, to be very
different from what I have found him in your Majesty's
affairs. He is well disposed towards them, truthful,
lucid, modest and just, and, although he is zealous in
serving his Queen, which is one of his best traits, yet
he is amenable to reason. He knows the French and,
like an Englishman, is their enemy. He assures me
on his oath, as I have already said, that the French
have always made great efforts to attract to their
country the Flanders trade, offering heavy security
for its safety. With regard to his religion I say
nothing except that I wish he were a Catholic, but
to his credit must be placed the fact that he is
straightforward in affairs, and shows himself well
affected towards your Majesty, for which I thank
him, and, with fair words that pledge me to nothing,
I let him know that your Majesty looks to him to
dispose matters favourably as necessity may occur,
for he alone it is who makes or mars business here.
Guzman was soon involved in the plot which ended in
Mary's disastrous marriage in the ensuing summer. Any
attempt to steer a clear, incontrovertible course through the
labyrinth of documents in which the truth lies hidden
334 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
concerning the means by which this match was brought
about, is foredoomed to failure. All that I can hope to do
is to select the essential documents illustrating what seems
to me the most plausible theory on the subject, in the light
of some newly-discovered letters, as well as of those already
printed. From these documents it seems clear that however
much Mary may have disliked the idea of marrying Leicester
when it was first mooted, she was afterwards sincere when
she expressed her readiness to accept him if Elizabeth would
but recognise her claims to the English succession. When
she made her definite promise to Randolph to that effect
Darnley, according to this theory, was being despatched
from the English Court for the express purpose of undoing
her unwelcome acquiescence. The opposite view is that
Mary never meant to marry Leicester, and only promised
to do so in order to disarm Elizabeth's suspicions regarding
Darnley.
The English Ambassador had already urged repeatedly that
it only needed Leicester's arrival to complete what he fondly
believed to be Elizabeth's magnanimous sacrifice, telling
Leicester himself " wherein I thought him overslow and
careless for his own weal and the profit of his country."1
More was thought of Darnley, he wrote to Cecil in an
earlier letter (Dec. 14) before his father's coming than at
present. " The father is now here well known ; the mother
more feared than beloved of any that knew her " ; and
Randolph bitterly complained that little was done on the
English side to conclude matters. Murray and Lethington
had both agreed that " the English amity is fittest, and no
man more acceptable than shall be Lord Robert." " The
stay is now," Randolph shrewdly guessed in the same letter,
" either in the Queen's Majesty to have all performed, or in
his Lordship's self, that hath the matter so well framed in his
hand, that much more I believe there need not be than his
own consent." 2
But Dudley had no desire to exchange his brilliant
prospects at Elizabeth's Court for the risk of sudden death
after the orthodox Scottish manner as husband of the
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. TI., p. 114.
2 Ibid., p. 98.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 335
Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth, as Cecil shows by his letter
to Smith of December 30 was " remiss of her earnestness "
when she came to discuss the conditions demanded. The
length to which she was prepared to go in order to keep
Leicester about her own person may be judged by her
impossible suggestion that if Mary would marry him, and be
content to live with her, she would gladly bear the charges
of both households.1 According to an incomplete statement
by Mary after her marriage with Darnley— much stained,,
defaced, and undated, but placed in the Scottish Calendar
under the date of October 1565 — Leicester himself had
written to her, secretly through Randolph — to the effect that
Elizabeth's object in offering his hand was only to deceive
her, and put off other suitors. Leicester was quite capable
of betraying his mistress in this fashion, but if such letters
were ever received by Mary they must have been written
after Darnley's arrival, and the contents kept from
Randolph, through whose hands she declares they passed.
That she was anxious to bring matters to a head at the
beginning of the year by feigning secret negotiations of
great importance in France is obvious from her next letter
to her Ambassador in Paris :
MARY STUART TO ARCHBISHOP BEATON.
[Strickland's " Letters of Mary Queen of Scots."]
January 28, 1565.
Monsieur de Glasgow,
I send the bearer more for a blind than for any
matter of importance — expressly to set people guess-
ing what it can be about. Pretend to be greatly
annoyed by the delay of this letter, and, if possible,
cause the English ambassador to suppose that it
relates to something of great consequence. Lose no
time in going to the Queen and soliciting an audience;
and, under the cloak of my pension, about which you
will talk to her, invent some subjects that will occupy
her attention for a considerable time, purposely to
make them imagine that this dispatch contains
something very important .... will give you intel-
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 81.
336 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
ligence concerning my affairs : you will know to
what account this information may be turned ; and
next day speak to her again if you can, and write to M.
the Cardinal [of Lorraine] as if in great haste ; but take
no notice of any thing beyond forwarding my letters,
so that he may receive news of me, and send me, as
soon as you possibly can, one of your people with all
the news you are able to obtain. I pray God to
have you in his holy keeping.
Your very good mistress and friend,
MARY R.
Mary followed this up with warnings to Randolph of the
danger of prolonging all the uncertainty between their two
Majesties, giving him at the same time a definite assurance
of her own readiness to marry Leicester :
SIR THOMAS RANDOLPH TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
EDINBURGH, February 5, 1565.
Immediately after the receipt of your letter to this
Queen, I repaired to St. Andrews, and when time
served I presented the same, which being read and
apparently very well liked, she said little to me for
that time. Next day she passed wholly in mirth, nor
gave any appearance to any of the contrary ; nor
would not, as she said openly, but be quiet and
merry. Her Grace lodged in a merchant's house,
her train very few, and small repair from any part.
Her will was that I should dine and sup with her,
and your Majesty was oftentimes drunken unto by
her. Having thus spent Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday, I thought it time to utter to her Grace
your Majesty's last command by Mr. Secretary's
letters — viz., to know her resolution touching the
matters propounded at Berwick by my Lord of
Bedford and me to my Lord of Murray and
Lethington.
I had no sooner spoken these words but she said :
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 337
" I see now well that you are weary of this company
and treatment. I sent for you to be merry, and to
see how like a bourgeois wife I live with my little
troop, and you will interrupt our pastimes with your
great and grave matters. I pray you, Sir, if you be
weary here, return home to Edinburgh, and keep
your gravity and great embassy until the Queen come
hither, for I assure you you shall not get her here,
nor I know not myself where she is become. You
see neither cloth of estate, nor such appearance that
you may think that there is a Queen here, nor I
would not that you should think that I am she at St.
Andrews that I was at Edinburgh."
I said I was very sorry, for at Edinburgh she said
she loved my Sovereign better than any other, and
now I marvelled how her mind was altered ! Hereat
it pleased her to be very merry, and called me by
more names than were given me in my Christendom !
At these merry conceits much good sport was made.
" But well, Sir," said she, " that which I then
spoke in words shall be confirmed to my good sister
your mistress in writing. Before you go out of this
town, you shall have a letter unto her, and for your-
self go where you will, I care no more for you."
Next I was placed at my ordinary table the next per-
son (saving worthy Beaton) to the Queen's self ; very
merrily she passeth her time. After dinner, riding
abroad, she talked most of the time with me of France,
and the honour she received there to be the wife unto a
great king, and the friendship to her from many, where-
fore she is bound to love the nation and continue the
friendship sought of her, for the maintenance of
many of her people there, the service of the Guard
and men at arms, besides privileges to her merchants
beyond any nation. " What privately of long time
hath been sought, and yet is, for myself to yield unto
their desires in my marriage, your mistress cannot be
ignorant, and you have heard. To leave such friends,
and to lose such offers, without assurance of as good,
nobody will give me advice that loveth me. Not to
E.M.S. z
338 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
marry, you know it cannot be for me : to defer it long,
many incommodities ensue. How privy to my mind
your mistress hath been herein, to know how willing
I am to follow her advice, I have showed many times,
and yet can I find in her no resolution nor determina-
tion. For nothing, I cannot be bound unto her, and
to frame my will against hers, I have of late given
assurance to my brother of Murray and Lethington,
that I am loath, and so do now show unto yourself,
which I will you to bear in mind, and to let it be
known to my sister your mistress. And therefore this
I say, and trust me I mean it, if your mistress will as
she hath said, use me as her natural born sister, or
daughter, I will take myself either as the one or the
other, as she please, and will show no less readiness
to obey her and honour her than my mother or eldest
sister; but if she will repute me always but as her neigh-
bour, Queen of Scots, how willing soever I be to live in
amity, and to maintain peace, yet must she not look
for that at my hands that otherwise I would, or she
desireth. To forsake friendship offered, and present
commodity for uncertainty, no friend will advise me,
nor your mistress's self approve my wisdom. Let her
therefore measure my case as her own, and so will I be
hers. For these causes until my sister and I have
farther proceeded, I must apply my mind to the
advice of those that seem to tender most my profit,
that show their care over me, and wish me most good.
I have now disclosed unto you all my mind, and
require you to let it be known to your Sovereign. My
meaning unto her is plain, and so shall my dealing be.
I know how well she is worthy, and so do esteem her,
and therefore I will thus much say more, that as
there is none nearer of kin unto her than I am, nor
none more worthy to whom I may submit myself, so
is there none to whom with better will I desire to be
beholden unto than unto her, or to do anything that
may be with my honour."
To this long discourse I did not much reply, but as
to her affection for France, I was bold to say, what-
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 339
soever her Grace had found herself, her country hath
felt the smart. I approved greatly her good words
of your Majesty and by many tokens showed
your Grace's like mind towards her. The matters
you stood on were so great, they could not soon
be resolved of, and it were much better to wait
a time than over hastily to press at them, and rather
to let them come of themselves than to seem to wring
them out by force. " When," she said, " heard you
me speak of these matters before ? " I said no, of her-
self, but her ministers bore always her mind, and in
their words uttered that which she would. " I gave
unto them charge," said she " to consider what is
fittest for me, and I find them altogether bent towards
you, and yet not so but I believe they will advise me
for the best. But so your mistress may use me that
I will leave their advice, and all others, and follow
hers alone." I liked these words so well that I
wished it might be so to both their contents.
"Remember," said she, "what I have said; this
mind that now I am of cometh not upon the sudden ;
it is more than a day or two that I have had this
thought, and more than this too that you shall not
know." I desired her not to cut off her talk there, it
was so good, wise, well framed and comfortable to
me, to hear her mind to your Majesty. " I am a
fool/' said she, "thus long to talk with you ; you are
too subtle for me to deal with." I protested that my
meaning was but to nourish perpetual amity between
you and her only by honest means. " How much
better were it," said she, " that we two being Queens
so near of kin, neighbours and living in one isle,
should be friends and live together like sisters, than
by strange means divide ourselves to the hurt of us
both ! and to say that we may for all that live friends,
we may say and promise what we will, but it will pass
both our powers ! You repute us poor, but yet you
have found us cumbersome enough ! We have had
loss, ye have taken hurt ! Why may it not be
between my sister and me, that we living in peace
z 2
340 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
and assured friendship may give our minds that some
as notable things may be wrought by us women, as
by our predecessors have been before ? Let us seek
this honour against some other, than fall at debate
amongst ourselves."
I asked her Grace whether she would be content
some day, whenever it were, to give her assistance for
the recovery of Calais ? At this she laughed and
said : " Many things must pass between my good
sister and me before I can give answer, but I
believe to see the day that all our quarrels shall be
one, and assure you, if we be not, the fault shall not
be in me." Such is the effect of much long talk
between this Queen and me, not so well answered by
me as spoken by her. I commended her opinion of
your Majesty, and so ended with her that no small
matter shall make her think otherwise, or over hasty
to enter into league with any, or match herself in
marriage, farther than either drift of time should be
found in your Majesty, or hasty request of her sub-
jects, or necessity to provide for her estate did press
her. I requested her humbly, inasmuch as I had
moved her by your command, to let her mind be
known how she liked the suit for my Lord of Leicester,
that I might be able to say or write somewhat thereon
to your Majesty. " My mind towards him is such as
it ought to be of a very noble man, as I hear say by
very many ; and such one as the Queen your mistress,
my good sister, doth so well like to be her husband if
he were not her subject, ought not to mislike me to be
mine. Marry ! what I shall do, it lieth in your mis-
tress's will, who shall wholly guide me and rule me."
I made as if I did not well understand her words, that
I might have the better hold of them — so she repeated
the self-same words again. And I, showing myself
fully contented, desired her Grace I might hastily
return to your Majesty while they were fresh in
memory.
" My mind is not that you shall so hastily depart :
at Edinburgh we may come on farther ; there shall
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 341
be nothing forgotten, or called back, that hath been
said. I have received," said she, " a very loving
letter from my good sister, and this night or to-morrow
will write another, which you must send away." Of
the whole conference I made a rehearsal to Murray
and Lethington, who were glad I had heard so much
spoken of herself, but without that principal point
whereon your Majesty stays they neither dare, nor
are willing of themselves, earnestly to press her, for
they see not otherwise how in honour she can accord
to your Majesty's advice, nor so to bind herself unto
you as they are sure she will — and therein offer their
service to you to their uttermost. Lethington doubts
your Majesty has an evil opinion of him, though I
assure him to the contrary, and find his dealing
hitherto honest. But in these great matters, however
ready to obey your Majesty's will, I am in continual
fear of my lacks, and would humbly crave that some
man of ripe experience and judgment out of your
many councillors, be sent here to bring them to a
successful issue:
To Leicester himself Randolph wrote on the following
day to the same effect, apologising also for having previously
written too plainly to the Earl on neglecting his golden
opportunity in Scotland. " I so much overshot myself and
your Honour in my last letters," he had also written to Cecil
on January 13, " that I repent they escaped my hand " :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER.
[Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her Times."]
February 6, 1565.
I have the longer forborne to write unto your
Lordship, for fear lest my last letters deserved so
little thanks that your Lordship careth not how few
come into your hands. Whatsoever is contained in
my writings, my mind was never to offend, and if
I knew which way to sort to your Lordship's con-
tentment, with the desire I have that this suit I have
here took effect, your Lordship should ever be void
342 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
of suspicion of my good will. That matter which
I have in hand, I am assured, if it take effect, shall
turn your Lordship to the greatest honour that you
can be called unto, except you marry with the Queen's
Majesty. What profit and commodity shall ensue
unto your country, the wisest and best experienced
have already given their judgment, that there can
be no greater. The Queen's Majesty's contentment
herein I am sure will be such, as this being ended,
her great care is past. Because your Lordship
therefore shall not be ignorant to what pass matters
are come unto here, that your Lordship may the
sooner, in debating with yourself, resolve upon that
which is found for you to be bestN it may please
your Lordship to understand that this Queen is
now content to give good care unto the Queen's
Majesty's suit in your behalf. By reports she hath
heard so much good of your Lordship that she
judgeth you worthy of any place of honour, yea, to
be husband to any Queen : she wisheth you also
a kingdom of your own, the sooner to come by that
which others think you worthy of. Wherefore,
towards yourself she beareth that good mind as, in
honour and place she occupieth, she may do to any,
yea to that which the Queen's Majesty desireth, if
those other things may ensue that are in private con-
ference between them. Whereof you thought that no
such stay will be, as either may hinder this purpose,
or be an occasion that the good-will that is between
them, may grow unto a coldness, or greater incon-
venience ensue than I can afford in my heart to
speak of. Her mind and determination herein is
committed unto the two Lords who are so affected
unto this cause, as no men more. Declaration is
made of their mind, and sufficient testimony of their
own good wills. If in so good a cause, so much to
the Queen's Majesty's contentment, so profitable to
your country, so comfortable to your friends, and
honourable to your Lordship's self, there be found
a stay in you, as all men hitherto have judged your
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 343
Lordship worthy to marry the greatest Queen, so will
this alter their opinions of you, worse than I can
speak, or would be glad to think. But why should
I be so mad as to believe that that could be your
thought ? I think with myself that I do your
Lordship over great injury thus to charge you, and
therefore of this matter I will write no more, but
take it as resolved, and travail the best I can to
bring it to effect, wherein God send me such
prosperous success as may be to your Lordship's
honour.
The selfsame occasions that were laid against
your Lordship, of which I wrote, and of which
I ground the cause of your Lordship's misliking of
me, I am again charged with, or rather your Lord-
ship burdened to your great negligence to woo a
Queen, without labour or travail, cost, charge,
message, token, no, not so much as once signifying
of your own good will. It is enough for me always
to say that it is no small honour for this Queen to
have such a princess as my Sovereign to be a suitor ;
your Lordship is right happy if so easily you may
come by her. I would that I might, with much
more labour and more earnest travail than ever
your Lordship took in this matter, marry but some
good old widow that had wherewith to keep me
towards my old days. I must now crave pardon,
and am sorry to have waded so far ; my mind is not
to offend, but in all dutiful service duly to serve your
Lordship during my life. I might here well leave
further to write unto your Lordship, with more
thanks peradventure than to take further pains, but
this I cannot leave out, which I must (saving that
which was done for my Sovereign's sake) chiefly
attribute unto your Lordship. Greater entertain-
ment, or greater honour could not be done to the
greatest ambassador that the Queen's Majesty could
have sent unto this Queen, than was done to me at
St. Andrews. For four days together I dined and
supped daily at her Grace's table ; I sat next unto
344 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
herself saving worthy Beaton1 our mistress. I had
longer talk and conference with her than any other
during the time. Enough, I assure your Lordship, if I
were able to report all, to make all the ill-will to both
these Queens' felicities burst asunder for envy. Of
your Lordship we have not spared to speak also,
but nothing of that which of any other things I desire
least should come unto her knowledge, wherein I have
said so much that if half were but true, your Lordship
I am sure is half-consumed in love for her sake.
Either Randolph was "a deluded simpleton "—deceived
by Mary as well as Elizabeth, according to T. F. Henderson
among modern historians, and Elizabeth, Leicester and
Cecil were equally misled as to Mary's tactics, according
to Froude, or, as Andrew Lang maintained — and these
letters I believe tend to confirm his view — she was really
sincere when she consented to the Leicester match at the
beginning of this month. Having always opposed the
coming of Darnley as being bound to add to the difficulties
of his own delicate negotiations, Randolph was now as
amazed as disconcerted to find, just when Mary had appeared
willing to submit, that both Leicester and Cecil were
earnestly working towards that very end :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
BERWICK, February 12, 1564.
I arrived here upon Thursday last, minding on
Monday next to return to Edinburgh, where the
Queen will be a few days after. Yesterday I
received yours of the 5th, and was glad to see you
had no worse than a cold. By your letter I perceive
what earnest means hath been made both by my
Lord Robert and your Honour for my Lord Darnley's
licence to come into Scotland. Your Honour's con-
sideration here is enough to satisfy me, how loath
1 Mary Beaton who, two years later, however, married Alexander
Ogilvy of Boyne.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 345
soever I am that any comfort should be taken here
by any as to think that through his presence my
purpose here should be subverted, or that they that
have stood in perfect amity and good will with my
Sovereign, should be grieved or offended that any
such should be licensed to come into the country,
of whom there is so much conceived against, as to
your honour is not unknown, both by word and
writing. My mind was ever to obey unto her
Majesty's will, but how to frame or fashion this,
that it may be both to her Majesty's honour and
thorough contentment in the end, I must now take
one care more upon me than before I had, which
must be supported by your Honour's good advice,
for truly of myself I know not yet what to think, or
how to behave myself.
Nine days previously Throckmorton, now preparing for a
mission across the border, received elaborate hints as
to the friends and enemies of Lennox " if the time may serve
in Scotland," and " if Darnley hit the mark."1 There is no
proof that Darnley aimed at this, or that Mary proved a
ready target, at their first meeting, which took place on
February 18, at the house of the Laird of Wemyss, though
"he was welcomed and honourably used," as Randolph
informed Leicester on the iQth. According to Melville, Mary
" took well with him, and said that he was the lustiest and
best proportioned long man that she had seen." But it was
not until later that she so obviously lost her head over this
" lady-faced lad " of nineteen, who, after thus first meeting
with his fate, continued his journey on the following morning
to his father at Dunkeld. On his arrival Lennox wrote to
Elizabeth thanking her for thus " licensing his son to come
to me," and " trusting you shall never have cause to repent." a
Darnley himself sent a separate letter to Leicester, testifying
to his anxiety at this period to retain the friendship of
Elizabeth's all-powerful favourite :
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., pp. 118—9.
2 Ibid., p. 127.
346 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
LORD DARNLEY TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER.
[Ellis's "Original Letters" Second Series, Vol. II.]
DUNKELD, February 21, 1565.
My especial good Lord,
Your accustomed friendliness during my continu-
ance in the Court, yea, since I first knew your
Lordship, cannot, though I am now far from you, be
forgotten of my part : but the remembrance thereof
constraineth me in these few lines to give your Lordship
my humble thanks therefore, and to assure your Lord-
ship that, during my life, I shall not be forgetful ol
your great goodness and good nature showed sundry
ways to me : but to my power shall ever be ready to
gratify you in anything I may as assuredly as your
own brother. And thus with my humble commenda-
tions to your good Lordship, I wish you as well as
your own heart would.
Your Lordship's assured to command,
H. DARNLEY.
My L. my father sendeth your Lordship his most
hearty commendations.
Before the end of the month Darnley was with the Queen
in Edinburgh, dancing with her on occasion at Murray's
request, and doubtless often enough in Mary's mind as a
possible future husband. " For myself," however, wrote
Randolph, " I see no great good will borne to him. Of her
Grace's good usage and often talk with him, her continuance
and good visage, I think it proceeds rather of her own
courteous nature, than that anything is meant which some
here fear may ensue." * Afterwards, however, he confessed
that he could not tell what affections may be stirred up in
her, or whether she will be at any time moved that way,
seeing she is a woman and in all things desireth to have her
own will." a She still professed to Randolph her readiness
to marry Leicester, though " in some mistrust of these long
delays," as the English ambassador informed Cecil in a letter
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 136.
2 Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times," Vol. I., p. 194.
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 347
which also brings again on the scene the significant figure of
the daredevil Bothwell, now returned, uninvited, from his
exile in France.
Bothwell had been released by Elizabeth a year previously
at the request of Mary Stuart that he might have liberty " to
depart your realm for such countries beyond sea as shall
seem to him most convenient." l Proceeding to France he
was appointed Captain of the King's Scottish Guard, but was
now eager to return and settle his account in Scotland. He
had accordingly sent young Murray of Tullibardine " to
purchase some grace and favour" at the hands of his Queen,
who, adds Randolph in announcing this fact to Cecil, " of
herself, is not evil-affected to him, but there are many causes
why he is not so looked on as some others are — and more
favour cannot be shown to him — accused of conspiring
against her to take her by force, and to kill those in chief
credit about her, and when committed to prison (as it may
be thought finding himself guilty) broke it and left his
country — than to Arran, who detected the same, and is yet
detained." 2 The failure of Tullibardine's mission only served
to inflame Bothwell the more against his enemies. He
landed without leave, breathing vengeance, but was wise
enough not to venture near the Queen's presence, though
Froude describes him as standing there, braving all, " none
daring to lift a hand against him — proud, insolent, and
dangerous." In point of fact Bothwell was reported by
Bedford on March 10 as hiding in the neighbourhood of
Haddington, "finding no safety for himself anywhere " ; and
he kept at a safe distance from Court. Mary, naturally
offended at hearing of the infamous words which Bothwell
had spoken of her, calling her the mistress of her uncle, the
Cardinal of Lorraine, swore to Randolph upon her honour
that he should never receive favour at her hands. " Bothwell
said in France," declared Randolph to Throckmorton, " that
both the Queens [Elizabeth and Mary] could not make one
honest woman ; and for his own, if she had taken any but a
Cardinal, it had been better borne with " 8 :
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 39.
2 Ibid., p. 129.
3 Ibid., p. 140.
348 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
EDINBURGH, March 15, 1565.
... Of Bothwell's arrival I doubt not your honour
is advertised by my Lord of Bedford. The Queen
altogether mislikes his home coming without her
licence, and has already sent a sergeant of arms to
summon him to underlie the law — which if he refused
to do, he shall be pronounced rebel. As it is thought
he will perchance seek refuge in England, I am
required to write to you to move her Majesty that he
may have no receipt there, and her officers be warned ;
as I have already written to Lord Bedford and Sir
John Forster. Bothwell is also charged by Murray
that came last out of France, of speaking dishonour-
able words against this Queen, and threatening my
Lord of Murray and Lethington that he would be
the death of both when he returned to Scotland.
Yet Bedford suspected Mary of favouring Bothwell, whom
he accuses at the same time of being much given to a vile and
unmentionable vice.1 According to Randolph, when he
declined to obey her summons to take his trial on the " day
of law" declared for him — shrewdly guessing what his fate
would be in the midst of Murray and his 6,000 armed sup-
porters— and he was condemned in his absence, she would
not have him " put to the horn." Seeing how things stood,
however, his case for the time being hopeless, Bothwell
again sought safety in France.
It has been supposed that Mary finally despaired of
Elizabeth's good faith in the Leicester match on March 15,
when Randolph " did communicate his sovereign's resolution
to her — causing her, as he heard afterwards, to ' weep her
fill ' — that even though she married Leicester, Elizabeth
would not proceed to the examination or declaration of her
interest in the succession until she herself had married or
notified her determination never to marry " ; and that Leth-
ington neither would, nor could, counsel her to delay longer.
Andrew Lang controverted this theory in his " New Light
1 Foreign Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. VII., p. 327.
[Photo, Giraudon
CHARLES, CARDINAL OF LORRAINE
After the portrait in the Biblioth&jue des Arts of Metiers
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 349
on Mary Queen of Scots" in Blackwood's Magazine in
July, 1907, in which he produced fresh evidence in a number
of hitherto unpublished letters of supreme importance in this
connexion. Only a brief condensation is given by Andrew
Lang of the longest of these new documents, which is now
printed from the manuscript in the British Museum :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO THE EARL OF LEICESTER.
[Egerton MS., 1819, fol. 47, British Museum.1]
EDINBURGH, March 20, 1565.
It is now time, and I know that your Lordship
looketh for it that you should hear from hence : but
where to begin, or what to write, I know not. To
write of all things that I wish should come to your
Lordship's knowledge, I cannot. To write less of
all matters than doth concern your Lordship were
too great a failure. I will begin at those things
that last occurred : and as time serveth, write of
the rest. Upon Wednesday the I3th of this instant
I received letters from the Queen's Majesty of her
resolution for the demands of this Queen. I took
the next whole day for advisement to consider upon
the matter, and inform myself what I might say.
Upon Friday I attended upon her Grace at dinner
and, in such merry talk among the rest that were
present, passed that time as I might. After her
dinner, in as good words and as merry sort as I
could — what grief somever was at my heart — I told
her Grace that I had received some letters from the
Queen's Majesty, my mistress. She was much more
desirous to hear what these imported than I was
to utter the contents. I declared at good length,
and in as fair speech as I could, the whole contents
1 The letter is copied from the collection of modern (igth century)
transcripts of MSS. relating to Scotland, 1538 — 1705. A pencil note
says that their accuracy is very doubtful, but the genuineness of the
present letter is indisputable. According to the British Museum
catalogue the originals of the transcripts formed part of the collection
of Dawson Turner, and appear at one time to have belonged to
John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, Secretary of State for Scotland,
in Charles II.'s reign.
350 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
of the Queen's Majesty's letter and resolution,
whereof I doubt not but your Lordship hath been
privy. I could not so cunningly handle the matter,
nor temper it with such terms, but I might perceive
in her, in my tale-telling, that altogether she grew
discontented. I persuaded with her Grace what I
could to find all good, and that there was no hurt,
nor that it could be prejudicial unto her, though
that which she chiefly desired were deferred for a
time. To leave many circumstances and purposes
that passed between us, in the end thus she saith,
that I had done her wrong to train her so long,
and to nourish her in such vain hope, as I have done
in matters that were never intended, and might as
well be resolved upon at the first as after so long
a time as they have had to be thought upon.
To this I answered, that the matters were great,
and therefore required the longer time, with the
better judgment there should be resolved upon ;
and, for my part, I saw nothing that was prejudicial
to her Grace, or why she should mislike. " I have
had," saith she, "warning enough of your doings,
and might, if I had been wise in time, have taken
heed unto you." I took those words spoken of
myself, and said that I had rather her Grace should
think them of me than of my Mistress, that so dearly
loved her. " I accuse not your Mistress," saith she,
" though she be loath to give unto me my desire in
that which perchance any would be loath to do ;
but, so long time to keep me in doubt, and now to
answer me with nothing, I find great fault, and fear
it shall turn to her discredit more than to my loss.
I will content myself with my small portion, and
maintain that as God will give me grace. When
better cometh, it shall be thankfully received of Him.
I assure you, and of none other, I would that I
might have been most bound to my sister your
Mistress. Seeing that cannot be, I will not fail in
any good offices towards her, but to trust much from
henceforth in her, for that matter I will not."
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 351
With as many good words as I could I sought to
mitigate that choler. Nothing would serve for that
time. She taketh her horse and rideth a hunting.
I tarried behind to talk with my Lord of Murray.
What shall I say but that I found him almost
stark mad ? ; not that the matter is desperate, but for
fear his sovereign should conceive such displeasure
hereat, that greater unkindness will ensue, whereby
we may enter into the old suspicions and opinions
that we have had, the one of the other. I talked with
him long. I found him reasonable enough : so that
the way be found how these two countries may live
in peace and concord, which he preferreth before
the whole world. In this meantime in cometh the
Lord of Lethington. I made him also privy of the
Queen's mind. He saith that he findeth nothing
strange, for he knoweth so much of the Queen's
Majesty's nature that she will never resolve in that
point : nor ever believed that it was possible to
persuade her to it. He alleged many reasons, and
somewhat more of choler than judgment. We took
up the matter here.
The Queen returned from her pastimes. I pre-
sented myself to be seen and perceived more sadness
in her look than countenance amiss towards me.
She retired to her cabinet : and I again to my two
good lords. I warned them only to take good advice
what counsel they gave, and bade them beware that
they be not too hasty in their resolutions. The one
of them said : " Where ye intend us no good, it is
no matter how little we follow of your counsel."
I bade them tarry a time, lest perchance they did
repent it. " Jacta est aleatr saith one; "I will care
no more what cometh of the matter." I had not
a Latin proverb to answer him with, but with an old
English saw I told him that " he that was a-cold
should blow the reek." I know not of us all three
who was most angry. I took my leave, thinking the
next day to talk more of the matter.
In the morning I wrote to my Lord of Lethington
352 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
a request to take part of a small portion that quietly
I would provide for him and me in my chamber.
He excused himself upon reasonable cause, as forced
against his will to be other where. Being at my
meat, I heard that the Queen would ride forth. I
made myself ready to attend upon her Grace. Upon
the sands of Leith she beheld a long space my Lord
of Darnley, Lord Robert [Stuart] and divers others
run at the ring. As little was done praiseworthily
as the day of the great triumph, when we thought
best of ourselves. It pleased her Grace there to
begin with me again of this doubtful case of mine.
She declareth her Grace's love and affection towards
my Sovereign, almost so far as to such obedience
as to her own dear mother ; yea, and I assure your
Lordship (be it spoken with no dispraise to her
Majesty) with the tears standing in her eyes. I
spoke as fair as was possible. I persuaded what
I could. I entreated ; I swore that there was
nothing but good meaning : but all things ended in
nought. "The dishonour," saith she, " and shame,
to be deceived, and being long since warned that
that should be the end, maketh me sorrier than
anything else. For I know if it were published
to-morrow it would never profit me one iota." She
told me in the end that she determined on the
morrow to send Beaton into England to desire
a safe conduct for the Lord of Lethington to pass
into France, and required me to write unto my Lord
of Bedford for licence to him for post-horses. I
thought that resolution to be very sudden, and trusted
by some protractions to find the means to overthrow
it. I prevailed nothing with her. I attempted my
Lord of Murray. " I beshrew me then," saith he,
" I have travailed over far in the matter, and fear
that I shall repent it." With the Lord of Lethington
I could not speak for business that he had to do—
I know not where. The next word that I heard
was from Beaton, who came to me for my letter to
my Lord of Bedford, and to know what I would
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 353
command to the Court. I gave him my letter to my
Lord of Bedford, and said for that time I would
trouble him no further.
This Sunday, after the sermon, which my Lord
of Murray never faileth to attend, though it be far
from his lodgings, I asked his Lordship if his choler
were digested. " The devil cumber you," saith he,
" our Queen doth nothing but weep and write.
Amend this betimes or all will be nought." I willed
him to tarry a reasonable time, and all things should
be well. " It passeth my power," saith he. I
answered again that so it did mine.
There fell this day so great a storm of snow as
though this whole winter there had been none.
Where I purposed to have gone to the Court, I could
not put my head out of the door. This morning,
Monday, I thought to have found my Lord of Murray
in his bed, and to have talked with him at good
length ; but before I went out of my chamber I had
one of his Lordship's servants to warn me that he
would dine at the Treasurer's, and that I should
meet him there, where also the Lord of Lethington
would be. At our first meeting he cursed me that
could guide a Queen no better when I had her in my
will, but so to handle her that she must be fain to
put herself into her enemies' hands. I told him that
it was well known where no good counsel would
be followed. In cometh Lethington. I sat as fast
upon him. We chafed ourselves well. I blamed
him for his hasty dispatch of Beaton towards the
Court for his safe conduct into France. First he
saith that he findeth it best so ; for matters had no
other issue, nor could abide any longer delay. His
mistress's friends there were as earnest to get an
answer as I was to persuade her to tarry a time.
After long debate, they both found it good that this
matter [the Leicester match] should not thus be
given over. His errand into France was only a
colour of a voyage into England, whither, if his only
errand was directed, it could not but be thought of
E.M.S. A A
354 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
some that he went a wooing or seeking of a husband
for his mistress. I desired him to be found true in
that matter : he assured me that I should, and that
nothing should be done that might displease my
Mistress, but that things should be used in all such
friendly sort as could be possible. I see that it must
be so whether we will or not. For the answer of
that which at this time I spoke unto this Queen, it
is referred until his coming. In much gentler words
we departed than we met.
Thus much of this negotiation I thought good to
write unto your Lordship, whereof I doubt not but
your Lordship, to save my pain of writing so much
again, will communicate the same to Mr. Secretary ;
to whom of other matters I have written a large
letter of doubts and fears of things that may ensue,
rather than of any present will.1 I would not that
this should be unknown unto your Lordship that there
is yet no doubt but all matters between the Queen's
Majesty, and this Queen may very well be accorded ;
for such an opinion hath she of late received of
Her Majesty, that she will not, as she saith, yet
change for any friend she hath. She is entered
into most despiteful hatred of the Constable of
France and his house, for her uncle's sake, and
willed me to give warning how the Queen's Majesty
doth trust him. We have news here of Mauvissiere
coming with his presents ; and somewhat else
spoken of that we cannot believe.
I scarce dare advance it here that your Lordship
was a counsellor of my Lord Darnley's coming hither ;
for little thanks will the Hamiltons give you that sent
them such a gift. They will be rather content that
you come yourself and enjoy the best place in the
whole country. Of the same mind is my Lord of
Argyll, who desireth to be heartily commended to
your Lordship, as also my Lord of Murray, though
he saith that he be angry with you. I leave further
1 This letter is printed in Wright's " Queen Elizabeth and her
Times."
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 355
troubling your Lordship, wishing that this letter
may be at the Court as soon as Beaton, lest ye do
return him with a sour answer, which I will now
take upon me shall not be necessary ; but when you
have Lethington in your hands, use him as you like ;
for, as I have told him, the Tower is too good a
place for him. Most humbly I take my leave. At
Edinburgh the aoth of March, 1564. Your honour-
able Lordship's ever at command. THO. RANDOLPHE.
Randolph may have resented Lethington's conduct partly
because he knew that he was in receipt of a pension from
Elizabeth — after the custom of the age, which appeared to
enable many statesmen to become pensioners of foreign
rulers without necessarily sacrificing their duty to their own
sovereigns. Lethington's journey to London was postponed
for nearly a month, by which time all Randolph's hopes came
tumbling down like a pack of cards, and Lethington went to
Elizabeth's Court on quite another mission. From the letter
of the 20th just printed, however, it seems clear that notwith-
standing Elizabeth's declaration, Murray, Lethington and
Randolph all hoped that the Leicester match might still be
arranged. Now comes another and a later letter from
Randolph — to Leicester's brother-in-law — which shows the
English Ambassador, as Andrew Lang says in printing the
following extract for the first time, more confident than ever
that all would yet go well :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR HENRY SIDNEY.
[" New Light on Mary Queen of Scots," BlackwoocTs Magazine.]
EDINBURGH, March 31, 1565.
I have brought it unto that pass, that now that I
have gotten the Queen's goodwill to marry where I
would have her, I cannot get the man to take her,
for whom I was suitor. How good an end I am like
to make of my business in hand your Lordship by this
may easily conjecture. But a man of that nature
I never found any, that with so little labour may be
called to so great honour (besides somewhat else of
no small price) and yet will rather choose daily to be
AA 2
356 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
trained and led I know not whither than yield unto
that which may make him blessed for ever. If She
were unknown or never seen by your Lordship you
might well marvel what divine thing it is by whom
this great felicity may be achieved.
To that which yourself hath been judge of with
your eyes, there is now so much added of perfect
beauty that in beholding the self-same person when
you come again, you shall neither find that face nor
feature, shape nor making, but all turned into a new
nature far excelling any (our own most worthy Queen
alone excepted) that ever was made since the first
framing of mankind. How many countries, realms,
cities, and towns have been destroyed and souls have
suffered to satisfy the desire of wilful man ! But he
whom I go about to make as happy as ever was any,
to put him in possession of a kingdom, to make him
prince of a mighty people, to lay in his naked arms a
most fair and worthy lady, either nothing regardeth
the good that shall ensue unto him thereby, the
honour that shall be to his name and race, the profit
that shall redound unto his country, — but so un-
certainly dealeth that I know not where to find him,
nor what to speak or promise, that I shall not be
forced to alter or call back again. To write all that
I think will require a much longer time than now I
have ; thus much shortly your Lordship in earnest
shall know, that this Queen and country was never so
far at the Queen's Majesty's devotion. All resteth
only upon declaration of the title which we [Mary] do
more for honour regard than profit we hope for or desire
thereof. In those terms now we stand that if shortly
our goodwill be not embraced it must be extended to
some other that gladly will receive us. The partner
offered [Leicester] above any other liketh us ; it is now
in your choice to do with us as you please. To make
this matter shortly off or on, the Lord of Lethington
repaireth to the Court : There shall we have our two
fine secretaries matched together, a couple as well
matched to draw in a yoke as any two that ever wrote
LEICESTER AND MARY STUART 357
with the pen. Before this matter be fully ended I
doubt not but your Lordship may be at the contract
making, but I assure your Lordship that so long time
is detracted that I fear in the end we shall repent it.
There is lately, or at the least not long since, come
unto us the young lusty long Lord [Darnley] that
looked ever so lofty in the Court where he went. I
know not what alteration the sight of so fair a face
daily in presence may work in our [Mary's] heart, but
hitherto I have espied nothing, yet I am somewhat
suspicious, or more peradventure fearful or jealous
than a wise man would be. He is gently looked upon,
courteously used, and well entertained at all hands,
and in this honour that is done unto him he taketh no
less upon him than appertaineth unto him. . . .
Leicester, however, had no intention of moving in the matter.
Possibly, as Andrew Lang suggests, he finally spoilt whatever
chance he had by his insolent familiarity with Elizabeth
during his tennis match with the Duke of Norfolk — news of
which must have reached Mary's ears at this time :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR NICHOLAS
THROCKMORTON.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
EDINBURGH, March 30, 1565.
Lately the Duke's grace and my lord of Leicester
were playing at tennis, the Queen beholding of them,
and my Lord Robert being very hot and sweating,
took the Queen's napkin out of her hand and wiped
his face, which the Duke seeing, said that he was
too saucy and swore that he would lay his racket upon
his face. Hereupon rose a great trouble and the
Queen was offended sore with the Duke. The tale is
told by Atholl the same day that Fowler came here
with his master's licence. We lack no news, for
what is most secret among you is so soon at this
Queen's ears that some would think it should be out
of the privy chamber door where you are !
That was the last straw. In her wounded pride Mary
turned to Darnley, nursed him through his puerile attack
358 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
of measles, and did exactly what Elizabeth and Leicester,
according to the theory supported by these documents,
meant her to do. She lost her heart to the callow youth
who was no more worthy to be her husband than was the
now demented Earl of Arran. Don Carlos, at one time
her most favoured candidate, was also a hopeless maniac.
Surely no woman was ever more unfortunate in her suitors
than this unhappy Princess, whose grace and beauty
were acknowledged throughout the length and breadth of
Christendom.
CHAPTER IX
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE
Darnley's True Character — Mary's Infatuation — Elizabeth Suspected
of Double-dealing in the Matter — She Woos the Catholic
Spanish Party — Her Ideas Regarding Marriage — Sends
Throckmorton to Edinburgh — Lethington sent by Mary to
London — His dealings with the Spanish Ambassador — Philip
Approves of the Darnley Match — Scotland's Disapproval —
Mary and Darnley's Measles — Creates Him Earl of Ross —
Promises Throckmorton Not to Marry for Three Months —
Darnley's Arrogance — Mary Believed to be Bewitched — Riccio's
Influence — Protestant Lords Organise Revolt — Elizabeth
commits Darnley's Mother to the Tower — Mary Sends a Fresh
Ambassador to London — Good News From Spain — Mary and
Darnley Married — The Turning Point in Mary's Career.
POLTROON, profligate, and bully as Darnley soon revealed
himself, his true character was as yet undeveloped at his
first coming to Mary's Court, though Elizabeth had probably
formed a shrewd idea of his worth. He seems to have made
a good impression on his first arrival in Edinburgh. " His
behaviour is very well liked," wrote Randolph to Cecil
on February 27, " and hitherto he so governs himself that
there is great praise of him."1 By April 15, however, the
Ambassador began to be seriously alarmed regarding the
Queen's new-born passion :
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
BERWICK, April 15, 1565.
I have not spared from time to time to write how
much Lennox's home-coming was misliked, and
what was feared by Darnley's arrival. The matter
is now grown to further ripeness. The Queen's
familiarity with him breeds no small suspicion that
there is more intended than merely giving him
1 Scottish Calendar, Vol. II., p. 128.
360 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
honour for his nobility, or for the Queen's Majesty's
sake, by whom it is said he was so well recommended.
It is now commonly said, and I believe is more
than a rumour, that this Queen has already such
good liking of him that she can be content to forsake
all other offers of suitors, and content herself with
her own choice. I know not what Lethington knows
or will utter, but am assured that, with the best of
his country, he partakes their griefs of the incon-
veniences and dangers like to ensue, which he shall
as soon find as any. He can more easily find how
far they have gone, and I wish he would be plain
with your Honour, and deal as wisely and carefully
in it as in all things to his Sovereign's advantage.
And if he can so much prevail against his own hope
as to persuade the Queen's Majesty to find it good
and to yield as much with him as ever she was with
any other, I must needs commend his wit for ever.
Always I would that her Majesty were void of the
suspicion that is here spoken to my face, that the
sending Darnley home was done of purpose to match
the Queen meanly and poorly, rather than live long
in amity. However false it be, I fear if things thus
ensue, men's hearts well affected to our Sovereign
will alter. If they have proceeded farther than I
have written, Lethington (if so much your friend as
he pretends) will not in private sort keep it from
you.
Randolph's anxiety now was to avoid this growing
suspicion that Mary's infatuation was " done of purpose "
by Elizabeth herself:
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
BERWICK, April 18, 1565.
Whatsoever I wrote last to your honour, I can
more boldly confirm by the fond tales and foolish
reports of his lordship's own servants. My whole
care is now to avoid the suspicion that the Queen's
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 361
Majesty was the means and worker hereof, as may
be alleged by some, as it was of his father's return
at her Majesty's suit. I see likelihood enough of
mischief among themselves, besides cutting off the
amity. What is thought of Darnley himself, his
behaviour, wit and judgment, I would there were
less spoken than is, or less occasion for all men to
enlarge their tongues as they do. Of this I have
a greater number of particulars than I may well put
in writing, which shall not be secret to you, though
I cannot utter them but with great grief of heart.
Now indeed I repent my time so long bestowed
among them that through their own unadvised
doings have brought their country to confusion.
With the Duke of Chatelherault I spoke not long
since. He takes his house quite overthrown, and
with heavy heart beholds the sight of them that he
fears shall be his confusion. He trusted much in
the Queen's favour ; now he sees his undoing and
all his adversaries' moves tending to that end. The
godly cry out that they are undone — no hope now
of the sure establishment of Christ's true religion,
but all turning to confusion. When you confer with
Lethington, you shall better conceive what shall be
best for both realms. Without care he cannot be,
and if at any time I have seen him perplexed, it has
been since these matters came to light, and the
opinions of men he has heard thereon.
The scene shifts to London a few weeks back in order to
show what meantime was happening at the English Court.
While Mary was still professing her readiness to marry
Leicester that presumptuous Earl was playing quite another
game, entertaining Elizabeth with lavish hospitality, and
arranging for her special benefit a dramatic performance in
favour of marriage. Comedy was running riot at the English
Court while tragedy was in the making at the Court of Mary
Stuart. Reading between the lines of Guzman's account of
these amusements, and of the English Queen's subsequent
snubbing of Dr. Nowell in public, it is not difficult to detect
362 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
her renewed desire to woo the Catholic-Spanish Party.
Elizabeth was nothing if not a born opportunist, and the
news of the approaching conference at Bayonne1 between
Catherine de' Medici and the Queen of Spain, with Alba and
the Papal representatives in attendance, filled her with
distrust. She was never in love with the Puritans, and
was no longer afraid to tell them so :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[English Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.J
LONDON, March 12, 1565.
On the 5th instant the party of the Earl of Leicester
gave a supper to the Queen in the palace, which was
the wager their opponents had won of them on the
previous day. The French Ambassador with Margaret
[Lady Lennox] and other of the principal ladies supped
with the Queen, as is usual on similar occasions.
There was a joust and a tourney on horseback after-
wards. The challengers were the Earl of Leicester,
the Earl of Sussex, and Hunsdon. The Queen sent
for me to be with her during the entertainment, and
while I was there she spoke of the liberty which she
said her preachers had, especially as regards their
speech, and their resistance to the ecclesiastical
costume which they were ordered to wear, as I had
told her ten days before. The tourney was a good
one, as such things go here, with four and twenty
horsemen between challengers and opponents. When
it was ended the Queen entered her apartments,
asking me, if I was not tired, to stay and see the
rest of the rejoicing for the day. She left Viscount
Montague and her Vice-Chamberlain with me until
the Earl of Leicester disarmed, when the rest of the
guests and I went to his apartments to supper. When
this was ended we went to the Queen's rooms, and
descended to where all was prepared for the repre-
sentation of a comedy in English, of which I under-
1 At which the massacre of St. Bartholomew is said to have been
planned, as part of the extermination of Protestantism throughout
the world.
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 363
vStood just so much as the Queen told me. The plot
was founded on the question of marriage, discussed
between Juno and Diana, Juno advocating marriage,
and Diana chastity. Jupiter gave a verdict in favour
of matrimony, after many things had passed on both
sides in defence of the respective arguments. The
Queen turned to me and said, " This is all against
me." After the comedy there was a masquerade of
satyrs, or wild gods, who danced with the ladies, and
when this was finished there entered ten parties of
twelve gentlemen each, the same who had fought in
the foot tourney, and these, all armed as they were,
danced with the ladies — a very novel ball, surely.
After this the Queen went up to her apartments
again, where they had spread a very large table in
the presence chamber, with many sorts of cakes,
confitures, and preserves, and in one part of it there
were herrings and other small fishes in memory of
the principle of Lent. The Queen asked whether I
would eat anything, and on my replying that I would
not, she laughed, and said : " I understand you very
well, and will not cheat you ; 12 o'clock has struck,"
and with that she entered her chamber, not very tired
to all appearance, although the entertainment had
been so long. She said how much she wished your
Majesty had been present, and she could entertain
and feast you here.
On the following day, Ash Wednesday, she went
into a great courtyard, where, on occasions such as
this, the sermon is preached, so that the people on
all sides may hear, as great crowds go, although the
Queen tells me that more go to see her than to hear
the sermon. The preacher was the Dean of St.
Paul's,1 who has replaced the one now in prison, from
whom he must be very different in person and
doctrine. After preaching for some time he began
to speak ill of a book written by a Catholic, who is
in Louvain, in praise of the Cross, and went on to
abuse images. As soon as he commenced the Queen
1 Dr. Alexander Nowell.
364 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
said: "Do not talk about that." The preacher, as
I am told, could not have heard her and went on,
whereupon the Queen raised her voice, and pointedly
said to him : " Leave that, it has nothing to do with
your subject, and the matter is now threadbare."
The preacher was confused, spoke a few words more,
and finished his sermon, and the Queen left apparently
very angry, as I am told, many of the Protestant
hearers being in tears, whilst the Catholics rejoice.
So strong is the hope born of desires that insignificant
events elate and depress men thus.
A few weeks later Guzman was afforded further proof of
Her Majesty's new leanings: " I was praising lately to the
Queen," he wrote on April 26, "the ceremony she per-
formed on Holy Thursday and the sermon of her Bishop-
Almoner, and the devotion with which she made the crosses
on the feet of the poor women and kissed them, as I informed
your Majesty in a former letter, to which she answered :
" Many people think we are Turks or Moors here, whereas
we only differ from other Catholics in things of small
importance.' I said : ' And those things your Majesty will
soon amend.' ' And you will see it,' she replied. But one
can only believe what one sees. The changes are not from
day to day, but from hour to hour."1 Elizabeth also found
it advisable to encourage the belief that she was still willing
to negotiate for a Spanish marriage, Guzman listening with
polite amusement, but without enthusiasm to her views on
this subject. Her opinions in regard to marriage in general
are more in accord with the advanced feminism of to-day
than the prevailing ideas of the sixteenth century. The
following dialogue ensued after the amiable Ambassador had
repeated the rumours which had reached him in March that
Her Majesty meant to marry the King of France :
She held down her head a little and laughed, and
I then told her that I had mentioned it to the French
Ambassador, who asked me what I thought of it, as
the King is short and the Queen tall, to which she
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 425.
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 365
replied : " They tell me he is not short, but I wish to
confess to you as it is Lent and you are my friend :
" Marriage was suggested to me with the King, my
brother-in-law ; the King of France has proposed as
well as the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, and I
understand the Archduke Charles also : the only
person who has not been mentioned to me is your
Prince."
"The reason," I said, "appears clear. The King
my master no doubt is convinced that your Majesty
does not wish to marry, since he, the greatest prince in
Christendom and the wisest, to whom, I am told, your
Majesty owes most obligation, was offered to you,
and nothing came of it."
She replied : " For my own part I do not think
that such a conclusion is so clear as you say, although
at that time I had a great idea not to marry, and I
promise you, if I could to-day appoint such a succes-
sor to the Crown as would please me and the country,
I would not marry, as it is a thing for which I have
never had any inclination. My subjects, however,
press me so that I cannot help myself, but must
marry or take the other course, which is a very
difficult one. There is a strong idea in the world
that a woman cannot live unless she is married, or at
all events that if she refrains from marriage she does
so for some bad reason, as they said of me that I did
not marry because I was fond of the Earl of Leicester,
and that I would not marry him because he had a
wife already. Although he has no wife alive now, I
still do not marry him, notwithstanding that I was
spoken to about it even on behalf of my brother the
King. But what can we do ? We cannot cover
everybody's mouth, but must content ourselves with
doing our duty and trust in God, for the truth will at
last be made manifest. He knows my heart, which is
very different from what people think, as you will see
some day. I wish your master were here that I
might entertain and consult with him, as please God
some day I may. If he goes by way of France you
366 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
know the road is a bad and a long one, and there are
always difficult bits on a long journey." With that
she laughed and passed to the subject of the inter-
view of our lady the Queen with her mother, about
which I told her I knew no more than I had already
conveyed to her from your Majesty.1
Next month Guzman reported that Elizabeth " was
always giving him hints about her marriage with the King
of France " ; and, in point of fact, this impossible match had
again been under discussion with the Ambassadors on both
sides for the last two months. De Foix was instructed to
renew the suit by Catherine de' Medici, who, having her own
game to play, was as insincere as the English Queen. Eliza-
beth, though it suited her hand to hint at the possibility of
such a match in order, if possible, to sow the seeds of dis-
sension between France and Spain, did not give De Foix
much encouragement. " I find myself, on the one hand," she
said to him when he broached the subject in February,
" much honoured by the proposal of the French King ; on
the other, I am older than he, and would rather die than
see myself despised and neglected. My subjects, I am
assured, would oppose no obstacle, if it were my wish, for
they have more than once prayed me to marry after my
own inclination. It is true they have said that it would
pleasure them if my choice should fall on an Englishman.
In England, however, there is no one disposable in marriage
but the Earl ot Arundel, and he is further removed from the
match than the east from the west ; and as to the Earl of
Leicester, I have always loved his virtues, but the aspirations
towards honour and greatness which are in me, cannot suffer
him as a companion and a husband." Nevertheless, she did
not allow De Foix to abandon the idea for some time, the
negotiations lasting until there was no longer any need to
keep up the pretence.
When news arrived of Mary's sudden liking for Darnley
Elizabeth professed extreme annoyance, and told Guzman that
she was sending Throckmorton to prevent that marriage if
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 409 — 10.
2 Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England."
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 367
possible ; " but day by day goes by," wrote that Ambassador
on April 28, " and he does not depart."1 He did not leave
until May 4, — with instructions to assure Mary of Elizabeth's
approval of her marriage with any " sortable " nobleman of
England except Darnley, but to make it quite clear that only
with the Earl of Leicester would Elizabeth be content to
inquire into or publish Mary's title to succeed her. Before
Throckmorton left Elizabeth placed Darnley's mother again
under arrest, as Guzman at once informed his master :
Lady Margaret sent word to me that she had gone
to the Queen's chamber and that her Majesty refused
to speak to her, and afterwards sent an order that she
was not to leave her apartments, giving her to under-
stand that she was to consider herself a prisoner, as
she had received letters from a foreign prince without
her permission, and without conveying the contents
to her. Lady Margaret answered that it was true
she had received a letter from the Queen of Scotland
by her Secretary, and had gone to the Queen's
chamber for the purpose of showing it to her Majesty,
who had refused to speak to her, and consequently it
was not her (Margaret's) fault. An answer came
from the Queen to the effect that although she was
detained in her apartments, there was no intention of
preventing her friends from visiting her, as is usually
done here in cases where persons are placed under
arrest. Lady Margaret also advised me that the
negotiations for the marriage of her son with the
Queen of Scotland were progressing favourably, and
asked me in case Lethington said anything about it
to me to assure him that your Majesty was favourable
to it, as they were, and always had been, so faithful to
your Majesty.2
Lethington had been sent by Mary to smooth the way for
the marriage upon which she had now set her heart. He
was to tell Elizabeth that having, " for her sake, forborne
to hearken to the matching with any foreign prince," Mary
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., p. 427.
a Ibid., p. 420.
368 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
could incline herself to marry Darnley if she had Elizabeth's
good will and assent thereto.1 At the same time, as can be
seen in Guzman's next letter, he was to secure the support
of Spain — even, if advisable, to reopen negotiations for
Mary's marriage with Don Carlos. This last must have
been mere diplomatic subterfuge on Mary's part, for a letter
which she had received from the Duchess of Aerschot at the
end of 1564 had made it clear that Don Carlos was out of
the question :
GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.
[Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I.]
LONDON, April 26, 1565.
On the same day that I had audience of the Queen
I spoke with Lethington at the French Ambassador's,
having gone thither from the palace. On leaving
there Lethington went with me to my house, which
lay in his road, and said he had something to tell me
as he had hinted before, and promised to come to my
house the next day for an interview. He talked of
this Queen on our way home, and said she was trying
to get all the marriageable Princes to propose to her,
and he therefore thought that at her instance they
were discussing her marriage with the King of France,
as he also said they were treating with the Archduke
Charles. I told him I did not believe there were any
negotiations going on with regard to the latter, as I
knew nothing of such negotiations, and if they were
really taking place I could not fail to be informed,
seeing your Majesty's affection for the Archduke and
your desire to promote his interests. He said : " I
understand that this Queen is arranging something
in France. I do not know whether it is some close
alliance, or only a feint to arouse suspicion and get
better terms in Flanders." " But," I replied, " it
might be rather to arouse suspicion on the part of
your Queen if it be true that she is not on good terms
with the Queen-Mother." " Yes," he said, " and I
1 Stevenson's "Selections," p. 115.
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 369
am surprised at it, for when my Queen was in France
she could not do too much for the Queen- Mother,
and put her own friends and relatives quite in the
background for her, and yet in return for all this she
has done her much harm. I did not dare to visit you
before I had been to see the (French) Ambassador
in order not to awaken distrust, but I will do so
to-morrow."
He came at the hour appointed, and after giving
me his credentials spoke to me on his Queen's behalf,
saying how great was the desire she had always had,
even in France, to be guided by your Majesty's will
and place herself in your hands. He had treated of
this with the Bishop of Aquila, who knew the extent
of the party his Queen had in this country, and had
discussed with him the project of his Queen's marriage
with his Highness, towards which her Majesty had
shown herself favourable. She had awaited your
Majesty's resolution on this point for over two years
and as so long a delay had taken place, and it might
be feared that your Majesty had other plans in view,
the pressure of her subjects, her own age, and the
inconvenience of a young Queen remaining unmarried
had caused her to listen to certain proposals and con-
versations with the son of the Earl of Lennox and
Lady Margaret. Besides being related to her on
both his father's and his mother's side he was not a
foreigner, which is the principal condition made by
this Queen and the Queen of Scotland's own subjects.
She had done her best to satisfy this Queen in this,
having in view the succession to the English crown,
but nevertheless she was quite free to do as she liked,
and had placed the matter before her Council for their
satisfaction. If, however, I gave her any hope of the
negotiations with his Highness' proceeding, her own
wishes and intentions on the subject were unchanged,
and she begged me to tell her what I knew about it,
as she had been informed by Cardinal de Granvelle
that I had orders from your Majesty. I answered
that your Majesty had always heard such flattering
E.M.S. BB
370 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
accounts of her great virtues that you held her in all
love and esteem, and was glad when the subject of a
union with the Prince was first broached, but that
having heard that Cardinal Lorraine had treated with
the Emperor about the Archduke, and had shown him
letters from the Queen saying that she left her mar-
riage entirely in his hands and those of her mother
(Queen-Mother ? ) preferring rather to fail in his way
than succeed in her own ; and the business having
gone so far as the fixing of the allowance to be made
by the Emperor for the Archduke's maintenance, and
the solicitation of your Majesty's approval of the
match, your Majesty had been constrained to signify
such approval rather then offend the Emperor and the
King of the Romans, and also because the Archduke's
interests were as dear to you as those of his Highness.
I followed in this, and in all else, the instructions I
had received from your Majesty urging the Archduke's
business to the full extent of my power.
Although Lethington did not refer to this point he
went on to say that what had happened was that as
soon as the King of France, his Queen's husband, had
died the Queen-Mother had conceived a great suspicion
of the marriage of his Highness, having regard to the
Scottish Queen's claims to this crown, and had sum-
moned the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal and
had begged them most urgently not to consent to any
such marriage, seeing the danger and inconvenience
that might result to France therefrom if to your
Majesty's power were added that of these two king-
doms. They promised as the Queen-Mother desired,
and thought more of the benefit of France than the
interests of their niece. When the Queen left France
the Duke told her he would not advise her respecting
her marriage, as he could not give her the counsel that
was best for her, but that she herself should look
where her best interests were. Whilst Lethington
himself was in this country he received advice that
Lorraine had an interview with the Emperor at
Innspruck to discuss this match without the know-
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 371
ledge of the Queen, and he (Lethington) had sent off
in furious haste to the Cardinal begging him not to
negotiate the marriage, as the Scottish people would
not consent to it, and it would cause confusion. He
also said that the Cardinal was taking this step without
having consulted the Queen, as he (Lethington) was
well acquainted with her views, and was convinced
that it was unsuitable that she should marry a foreign
Prince unless he was powerful enough to hold his
own. He sent a copy of this letter to his mistress to
put her on her guard, but the Cardinal had neverthe-
less persevered in his action, and had written to the
Queen, who thought that as the Archduke was a son
and relative of such powerful monarchs, she could not
refuse him hastily, but in a respectful way said that
she would lay the matter before her subjects, and in
the meanwhile could learn what the Emperor was
going to do for his son ; the idea being to drop the busi-
ness politely on one or other of these points. He
always understood that the Cardinal's object was to
prevent the match with the Prince, knowing at the
same time that the marriage he was advocating would
never be carried through, as the Archduke had not
the wealth necessary for the purpose, and the Emperor
was not near enough to be able to forward the designs
and objects which would lead the Queen to introduce
a foreign husband in her house against the will of her
people, which, indeed, would be hopeless unless your
Majesty took the whole matter in hand, and did it
yourself, as this uncle had done for his niece.
" I have no doubt," I said, " that all this happened
as you say, but the end of the business has been that
my master the King will not comply with the respect
due to his uncle, the Emperor, and his friendship
with the King of the Romans, or with the love he
bears to the Archduke, and will be prevented from
displaying that regard and consideration due to his
relatives. This has been the cause of the failure to
send a reply, and not any want of the affection and
attachment which the King feels towards your mis-
BB 2
372 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
tress. With regard to the proposed marriage with
the son of the Earl of Lennox, since the Queen has
to marry a native, it appears the most suitable
match that can be found, both on account of the pro-
mise displayed by the Lord Darnley himself, and on
account of his parents, for whom, and particularly for
Lady Margaret, my master has an especial regard.''
I impressed this upon him both to lead him away from
the subject of the Prince, and because I knew he would
communicate this to Margaret, and I wished to continue
the course I had adopted of trying to keep them in good
humour in view of eventualities. He said, " It would
certainly seem that, if my Queen could not marry
a Prince powerful enough to ensure her against the
dangers of marrying a foreigner, this is the best
match for her, but it may have a great objection if
this Queen does not take it well, as she shows signs of
not doing. She might in such case take the side of
Catherine, and, if she were to declare her the suc-
cessor to the crown, it would be necessary for my
Queen to use force to eject her if this Queen were
to die, especially if the Protestant side is appealed to
for support by the Queen of England ; or if she were
to enter into a new and close confederation with
France, or if, again, the French, moved by greed for
this country, were to carry out in earnest that which
they seem to be treating as a joke, namely, the mar-
riage of their King with his Queen. All this would
cause grave evil, but could be remedied by his Majesty
the King taking my Queen and her affairs under his
protection, in the assurance that at all times, and in
every matter, they shall be considered as his own.
In this way with perfect ease great effects might be
produced, but such an arrangement would have to be
treated with the utmost secrecy and kept quiet till the
opportune moment. There is no doubt whatever
that the majority of the gentry and common people
are attached to my Queen, and I can affirm positively
that she will follow in every respect the wishes of your
master. To send an Ambassador to treat of this would
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 373
cause suspicion, and the Queen therefore begs you to
inform the King of her desires, so that his Majesty
may send you powers and full instructions, and we
can then treat with all the speed and secrecy that the
case requires. The Queen would do the same, but if
it were thought that the matter could be dealt with
better by the King's Ambassador in Paris (he being
nearest to Spain) it could be done very well in that way,
because the Queen of Scotland's Ambassador there is
a prelate, and a person of great virtue and ability.1
Above all I wish you to understand that my Queen's
wish and desire are what I have set forth."
These negotiations were probably dictated as much by
Lethington — the Cecil of Scotland — as by Mary herself,
for now that Leicester was out of the question, and
Elizabeth's friendship in danger, it was desirable for
the moment to secure the support of Spain, even at
the risk of a set-back to Protestantism. Guzman saw
the fresh possibilities of uniting the Catholics of England
and Scotland in revolt when the time was ripe, thus
affording Philip a fair chance of stepping in and again
taking England under his tutelage. Lethington therefore
left London on May 4th with Throckmorton, assured of
Guzman's interest and his intention to send post-haste
for the King's instructions. For once Philip in reply
showed some signs of eagerness :
Your news on this head has been very pleasing to
me, and, on the presumption that the marriage of
the Queen and Darnley has really gone so far, the
bridegroom and his parents being good Catholics
and our affectionate servitors ; and, considering the
Queen's good claims to the crown of England, to
which Darnley also pretends, we have arrived at the
conclusion that the marriage is one that is favourable
to our interests, and should be forwarded and
supported to the full extent of our power. We have
thought well to assure the Queen of Scotland and Lord
Darnley's party — which we believe is a large one in
1 Archbishop Beaton.
374 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
the country — that this is our will and determination
and that if they will govern themselves by our advice
and not be precipitate, but patiently await a
favourable juncture, when any attempt to upset their
plans would be fruitless, I will then assist and aid
them in the aim they have in view. I have instructed
the Duke of Alba to address himself to this effect to
the Scottish Ambassador resident in the Court of
France, but I think well to advise you of it also in
order that you may know my views and keep them
quite secret from the Queen of England and her friends,
seeing the great danger which would result to the
business itself and all other of our affairs if it
became known.1
Lethington in the meanwhile had returned to a Scotland
full of turmoil and discontent, as may be judged from
Randolph's next letter:
THOMAS RANDOLPH TO SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
EDINBURGH, May 3, 1565.
Such discontent, large talk, and open speech I
never heard in any nation, and for myself see not
but it must burst out in great mischief — for the
Queen is suspected by many of her nobles, and her
people are discontented for her religion, this match
a-making without advice, and other as evil things
they suspect, besides her unprincely behaviour in
many of her doings. They will shortly either have
it reformed, or openly signify that what she has
taken in hand tends to her own destruction and over-
throw of tranquillity of her realm — and must be
helped by sharper means. They are not one or two,
nor are they meanest that speak it, nor the unlikeliest
to execute it.
Their talk of this marriage is so contrary to their
minds, that they think their nation dishonoured, the
Queen shamed, and country undone. A greater
1 Spanish Calendar : Elizabeth, Vol. I., pp. 432 — 3.
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 375
plague to herself and them there cannot be, a
greater benefit to the Queen's Majesty could not
have chanced than to see this dishonour fall upon
upon her, and her so matched where she shall be
ever assured that she can never attain to what she
so earnestly looked for, and without it would accord
to nothing. She is now in utter contempt of her
people, and so far in doubt of them herself, that,
without speedy redress, worse is to be feared. Many
grievous and sore words have of late escaped her
against the Duke of Chatelherault, she mortally hates
Argyll, and so far suspects Murray that not many
days since, she said she saw that he would set the
crown upon his own head. How these men need
look to themselves, your honour sees. It is come to
this point, that Murray and Argyll will at no time be
in Court together, that if need be, one may relieve or
support the other. The Duke lives at home, and
thinks himself happy if he may die in his bed.
Darnley was now safely through his measles, thanks partly
to the Queen's assiduity in nursing him, which led to the
inevitable wagging of scandal-loving tongues. Shortly after
his recovery Mary created him Earl of Ross, deferring the
greater honour, as Throckmorton says in his letter of
May 21, until she heard how Elizabeth accepted her
proceedings :
SIR NICHOLAS THROCKMORTON TO QUEEN
ELIZABETH.
[Scottish Calendar, Vol. II.]
EDINBURGH, May 21, 1565.
. . . About 2 p.m. Lords Erskine and Ruthven,
two of her privy council, came and accompanied me
to the Queen, whom I found in the castle, accom-
panied by the Duke of Chatelherault, the Earls of
Argyll, Murray, Morton, Atholl, Glencairn and other
Earls and Barons, so that it appeared few nobles
were absent. I delivered your Majesty's letter, and
under your instructions set forth at good length your
376 ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART
misliking and disallowance of her hasty proceeding
with the Lord Darnley, as well for the matter as for
the manner, wherein she erred by unadvisedness and
rashness : and the said Lord Darnley and his parents
had failed of their duties by their arrogant and
presumptuous attempts to enterprise such matter
. . . without making your Majesty privy thereunto,
being your subjects. The Queen answered that she
had not failed on her behalf to communicate the
matter to your Majesty in time (that was to say) as
soon as she was resolved of the man and the matter
— for other promise she never made any but to
communicate unto your Majesty the person whom
she would like to choose. And as to your misliking
it, she marvelled not a little, because she did but use
her choice according to your Majesty's prescription,
fortifying her saying and doings by your Majesty's
mind declared not long ago by Mr. Randolph to this
effect unto her, as she alleged : that is to say, what
time she did advertise your Majesty of the motion
made unto her of Charles Duke of Austria (your
Majesty dissuading her from that match, and from
any of the Emperor's house, and likewise from the
house of France and Spain,) you were contented
(that those houses only excepted) she might take her
choice of any person within the realms of England
and Scotland or in any other country ; and because
she thought none might be more agreeable to your
Majesty and the realm of England, and likewise to
her subjects and the realm of Scotland, than the
Lord Darnley (he being your Majesty's kinsman and
hers, and participating of the English and Scottish
blood,) she did with the less preciseness proceed so
far forward in this matter as she had done.
Thereupon I replied and impugned her sayings by
the very words of Randolph's commission — containing
these three articles, first for her own contentment ;
second the allowance of her people ; and third that
the choice be such as the straight amity betwixt us
not only for our own persons, but also for our nation,
THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE 377
may be continued and not dissolved nor diminished.
Proving to her by many and probable arguments,
that Lord Darnley did in no part satisfy the contents
of that liberal permission whereon she chiefly
grounded herself to have your allowance. About
this we spent a long time, and had sundry disputes,
which I omit to declare till my access to your
Majesty ; as also my other negotiations with this
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